Different Meanings of the October 2013 Presidential Elections in Azerbaijan: Elites, Opposition, and Citizens

Abstract

This article offers a contextual analysis of the Azerbaijani October 2013 presidential elections making a number of arguments: (1) during good times (when economic and political shocks are absent), elections are unlikely to induce incumbent defeat or democratic breakthrough; this explains why the October elections were business as usual; (2) the October elections had different roles and meanings for different actors: winning with a fabricated landslide was used by the leader to signal his own and his regime's strength and to intimidate opponents; for the opposition, it was an arena to mobilize support and to expose government corruption; for citizens, elections were less relevant as something affecting their everyday lives; (3) many citizens hold an instrumental and clientelistic view of government as a system to deliver particularistic services which matches well with the clientelism at higher political levels and might complicate collective action and impede the prospects of the country’s democratization in the future.