Merete Bech Seeberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 4371223 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Merete Bech Seeberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Merete Bech |
| FAMILY NAME | Seeberg |
| SIGNATURE | SEEBERG M B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Aarhus University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4007-8411 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 89 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Messages Matter
Governments and organizations around the world pour money into campaigns designed to increase female political representation, including voter education campaigns. Do such campaigns promote women in politics? We argue that where single-member district contests and clientelism incentivize voters to support viable candidates, information about discrimination against women can undercut support for women in elections. Instead, messages that stress wo…
How Does Primary Election Manipulation Affect the Selection of Women Candidates? Evidence from Malawi
How does manipulation of primary elections affect the selection of women candidates for parliament? The underrepresentation of women in politics is a well-researched global phenomenon. However, as most work focuses on general elections, we overlook the disadvantages that women face in the selection process. Specifically, primary elections often provide ample room for manipulation. We argue that manipulation skews electoral contests in favor of ca…
Paying to Play
What are the sources of incumbent parties' superior financial resources in parliamentary election campaigns in Africa's clientelistic democracies? Scholars have emphasized ruling parties' access to state resources. We document a different mechanism, where government parties attract candidates willing and able to devote their personal resources to parliamentary (and by extension presidential) campaigns in the hope of gaining access to central reso…
How State Capacity Helps Autocrats win Elections
Research has highlighted the role of the state in sustaining authoritarian regimes. But how does state capacity support autocrats during elections? The author argues that one specific aspect of state capacity – control over territory through the state apparatus – helps autocrats ensure large majority electoral victories. High-capacity rulers can rely on local agents and institutions to subtly manipulate elections, for instance by controlling the …
State Capacity, Economic Control, and Authoritarian Elections
Although the phenomenon of authoritarian elections has been a focal point for the literature on authoritarian institutions for more than a decade, our understanding of the effect of authoritarian elections is still limited. Combining evidence from cross-national studies with studies on selected cases relying on recent field work, this book suggests a solution to the "paradox of authoritarian elections". Rather than focusing on authoritarian elect…
Violence and Candidate Nomination in Africa
Electoral authoritarianism and economic control
While electoral revolutions in the Philippines and the post-Communist world have ousted dictators, autocrats from Mexico to Zimbabwe have cemented their rule through regular multi-party elections. Why do elections sometimes undermine authoritarian regimes while at other times they help sustain them? I argue that a dictator’s control over the economy conditions the effect of authoritarian elections. Where rulers command the heights of the economy,…
Fighting your friends? A study of intra-party violence in sub-Saharan Africa
This article focuses on a less visible and less studied type of political violence, namely violence that occurs within political parties. We use new, district-level data to compare the temporal and spatial dynamics of intra-party violence to those of general election violence across selected sub-Saharan African countries, including both democracies and autocracies, from 1998 to 2016. Relying on cross-national and sub-national analyses, we show th…
Candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa
This article introduces a special issue on candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa. Although a burgeoning literature on African democratization has focused on the topic of electoral violence, little attention has been given to violence during party nominations. When local-level or national-level competition between parties is low, as in much of Africa, electoral politics become a matter of intra-party rather t…
State capacity and the paradox of authoritarian elections
A "paradox of authoritarian elections" prevails: While some researchers emphasize the stabilizing effect of authoritarian multi-party elections, others point to their potential for regime subversion. I argue that the effect of elections will likely depend on the capacities of the authoritarian regime in which they take place. In particular, state capacity may influence the relationship between authoritarian elections and regime stability. Autocra…
State capacity and the paradox of authoritarian elections
A "paradox of authoritarian elections" prevails: While some researchers emphasize the stabilizing effect of authoritarian multi-party elections, others point to their potential for regime subversion. I argue that the effect of elections will likely depend on the capacities of the authoritarian regime in which they take place. In particular, state capacity may influence the relationship between authoritarian elections and regime stability. Autocra…
Candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa
This article introduces a special issue on candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa. Although a burgeoning literature on African democratization has focused on the topic of electoral violence, little attention has been given to violence during party nominations. When local-level or national-level competition between parties is low, as in much of Africa, electoral politics become a matter of intra-party rather t…
How State Capacity Helps Autocrats win Elections
Research has highlighted the role of the state in sustaining authoritarian regimes. But how does state capacity support autocrats during elections? The author argues that one specific aspect of state capacity – control over territory through the state apparatus – helps autocrats ensure large majority electoral victories. High-capacity rulers can rely on local agents and institutions to subtly manipulate elections, for instance by controlling the …
Fighting your friends? A study of intra-party violence in sub-Saharan Africa
This article focuses on a less visible and less studied type of political violence, namely violence that occurs within political parties. We use new, district-level data to compare the temporal and spatial dynamics of intra-party violence to those of general election violence across selected sub-Saharan African countries, including both democracies and autocracies, from 1998 to 2016. Relying on cross-national and sub-national analyses, we show th…
Electoral authoritarianism and economic control
While electoral revolutions in the Philippines and the post-Communist world have ousted dictators, autocrats from Mexico to Zimbabwe have cemented their rule through regular multi-party elections. Why do elections sometimes undermine authoritarian regimes while at other times they help sustain them? I argue that a dictator’s control over the economy conditions the effect of authoritarian elections. Where rulers command the heights of the economy,…
Paying to Play
What are the sources of incumbent parties' superior financial resources in parliamentary election campaigns in Africa's clientelistic democracies? Scholars have emphasized ruling parties' access to state resources. We document a different mechanism, where government parties attract candidates willing and able to devote their personal resources to parliamentary (and by extension presidential) campaigns in the hope of gaining access to central reso…
How Does Primary Election Manipulation Affect the Selection of Women Candidates? Evidence from Malawi
How does manipulation of primary elections affect the selection of women candidates for parliament? The underrepresentation of women in politics is a well-researched global phenomenon. However, as most work focuses on general elections, we overlook the disadvantages that women face in the selection process. Specifically, primary elections often provide ample room for manipulation. We argue that manipulation skews electoral contests in favor of ca…
State capacity and the paradox of authoritarian elections
A "paradox of authoritarian elections" prevails: While some researchers emphasize the stabilizing effect of authoritarian multi-party elections, others point to their potential for regime subversion. I argue that the effect of elections will likely depend on the capacities of the authoritarian regime in which they take place. In particular, state capacity may influence the relationship between authoritarian elections and regime stability. Autocra…
State Capacity, Economic Control, and Authoritarian Elections
Although the phenomenon of authoritarian elections has been a focal point for the literature on authoritarian institutions for more than a decade, our understanding of the effect of authoritarian elections is still limited. Combining evidence from cross-national studies with studies on selected cases relying on recent field work, this book suggests a solution to the "paradox of authoritarian elections". Rather than focusing on authoritarian elect…
Violence and Candidate Nomination in Africa
Electoral authoritarianism and economic control
While electoral revolutions in the Philippines and the post-Communist world have ousted dictators, autocrats from Mexico to Zimbabwe have cemented their rule through regular multi-party elections. Why do elections sometimes undermine authoritarian regimes while at other times they help sustain them? I argue that a dictator’s control over the economy conditions the effect of authoritarian elections. Where rulers command the heights of the economy,…
Fighting your friends? A study of intra-party violence in sub-Saharan Africa
This article focuses on a less visible and less studied type of political violence, namely violence that occurs within political parties. We use new, district-level data to compare the temporal and spatial dynamics of intra-party violence to those of general election violence across selected sub-Saharan African countries, including both democracies and autocracies, from 1998 to 2016. Relying on cross-national and sub-national analyses, we show th…
Candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa
This article introduces a special issue on candidate nomination, intra-party democracy, and election violence in Africa. Although a burgeoning literature on African democratization has focused on the topic of electoral violence, little attention has been given to violence during party nominations. When local-level or national-level competition between parties is low, as in much of Africa, electoral politics become a matter of intra-party rather t…
How State Capacity Helps Autocrats win Elections
Research has highlighted the role of the state in sustaining authoritarian regimes. But how does state capacity support autocrats during elections? The author argues that one specific aspect of state capacity – control over territory through the state apparatus – helps autocrats ensure large majority electoral victories. High-capacity rulers can rely on local agents and institutions to subtly manipulate elections, for instance by controlling the …
Paying to Play
What are the sources of incumbent parties' superior financial resources in parliamentary election campaigns in Africa's clientelistic democracies? Scholars have emphasized ruling parties' access to state resources. We document a different mechanism, where government parties attract candidates willing and able to devote their personal resources to parliamentary (and by extension presidential) campaigns in the hope of gaining access to central reso…
Messages Matter
Governments and organizations around the world pour money into campaigns designed to increase female political representation, including voter education campaigns. Do such campaigns promote women in politics? We argue that where single-member district contests and clientelism incentivize voters to support viable candidates, information about discrimination against women can undercut support for women in elections. Instead, messages that stress wo…
How Does Primary Election Manipulation Affect the Selection of Women Candidates? Evidence from Malawi
How does manipulation of primary elections affect the selection of women candidates for parliament? The underrepresentation of women in politics is a well-researched global phenomenon. However, as most work focuses on general elections, we overlook the disadvantages that women face in the selection process. Specifically, primary elections often provide ample room for manipulation. We argue that manipulation skews electoral contests in favor of ca…
Political science (9 works) · Law (7 works) · Political Conflict and Governance (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Political economy (5 works) · Democracy (4 works) · Economics (4 works) · Authoritarianism (3 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (3 works)