The cost of democracy
The determinants of spending on the public administration of elections
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6298092 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alistair Clark (0000-0001-7178-0161, Newcastle University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 354-369 |
| Publication date | 2019-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0192-5121 • E-ISSN: 1460-373X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0192512118824787 |
| OpenAlex | W2925733563 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 31 |
Managing the electoral process requires considerable administrative and organizational capacity. Poor performance can lead to voters being disenfranchised and the integrity and legitimacy of elections undermined. Providing sufficient capacity to manage a national electoral process is expensive. Little research assesses how much electoral democracy costs, and what drives those costs. These are crucial questions for democracies, political science and public administration. Using rare comprehensive data from Britain, this article’s major contribution is to begin identifying some of the drivers impacting on the cost of electoral administration in advanced democracies. It presents an overview of influences on spending on electoral administration, before developing a multivariate model utilizing socio-economic, organizational and administrative data on election spending. It finds that costs in an important advanced democracy have been driven in a major national election by the need to provide capacity, notably on the ground close to electors
Administration (probate law · Business · Democracy · Economics · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Process (computing · Public economics · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Green Election Campaign and Incumbent Election Expenses
Electoral Costs and Local Public Institutions’ Role in Voter Turnout
Rising Election Costs, Dwindling Election Quality
Are polarised elections the hardest to deliver? Explaining global variations in electoral management body performance
Overpromising Social Welfare Benefits? Electoral Competition and Welfare Politics in Taiwan
The role of education in shaping voting behavior
Voto eletrônico remoto (i-voto) e a pandemia de Covid-19
The effects of electoral systems on electoral administration
The Public Funding of Election Administration
Delivering electoral integrity under pressure
Electoral Malpractice
Capacity for public administration
The cost of elections
The Changing Nature … and Costs … of Election Administration
Explaining electoral fraud in an advanced democracy
Measuring Public Sector Capacity
Election Administration Finance in California Counties
Public Administration and the Integrity of the Electoral Process in British Elections
Treating Voters as an Afterthought? The Legacies of a Decade of Electoral Modernisation in the United Kingdom
Fixing failures of U.K. electoral management
Building Capacity in Election Administration
The Public Administration of Elections
Capacity, Leadership, and Organizational Performance
Strategy Content and Organizational Performance
Bureaucracy and Democracy
Controlling Democracy
A Banana Republic? The Investigation into Electoral Fraud by the Birmingham Election Court
Evaluating electoral management body capacity
The Comparative Study of Electoral Governance—Introduction
Better workers, better elections? Electoral management body workforces and electoral integrity worldwide
Identifying the determinants of electoral integrity and administration in advanced democracies
A framework for the systematic study of election quality
The role of electoral administration in democratic transitions
Long Lines, Voting Machine Availability, and Turnout
The new research agenda studying electoral integrity
The role of administrative data in the big data revolution in social science research
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |