Conceptual analysis uncovers widespread electoral manipulation in non-democratic regimes, highlighting that elections frequently function as instruments of authoritarian control.
The idea of democracy has become so closely identified with elections that we are in danger of forgetting that the modern history of representative elections is a tale of authoritarian manipulations as much as it is a saga of democratic triumphs. Historically, in other words, elections have been an instrument of authoritarian control as well as a means of democratic governance.
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Andreas Schedler (2002) studied this question.
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