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Autocratic electoral management: Lessons from Thailand
[journal article]
Abstract How can we ensure quality elections when the key institutions responsible for the organisation of polls are openly partisan and anti-democratic? In their 2017 paper, Birch and van Ham suggest that partisan electoral management bodies (EMBs) do not matter for the quality of polls so long as effective... view more
How can we ensure quality elections when the key institutions responsible for the organisation of polls are openly partisan and anti-democratic? In their 2017 paper, Birch and van Ham suggest that partisan electoral management bodies (EMBs) do not matter for the quality of polls so long as effective alternative oversight institutions exist, are active and independent. These institutions can make up for the EMBs’ shortcomings and ensure that a relatively high-quality election is still achieved. I argue that the notion of active and independent alternative oversight institutions leaves us guessing under which conditions it works. Adopting James’s network-based approach to electoral management, I show on the example of the 2019 Thai election that electoral governance networks that are characterised by high levels of political polarisation, the presence of entrenched authoritarian elites and formally independent EMBs that are too powerful make substitution untenable.... view less
Keywords
Thailand; authoritarian system; political system; election; governance; network; political elite; Southeast Asia
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
Wahlbeobachtung
Document language
English
Publication Year
2024
Page/Pages
p. 3-25
Journal
Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 43 (2024) 1
ISSN
1868-4882
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed