"What Will They Think About Us?" The Importance of International Recognition of Elections

Abstract

This article deals with the question of democratic legitimacy and analyzes the importance of international recognition of elections for newly independent countries. Taking the case of the November 1, 2015 Parliamentary Election in Azerbaijan, I look into the question of why it is so important for the Azerbaijani elites to be recognized as a democracy. Among other things, I argue that the democratic ideal has become "commercialized" and is being used as a tool of hegemony by various bigger states towards smaller ones in international politics. The use of the tool of external recognition for democratic elections by the Russian Federation proves the claim of instrumentalization of the concept.