CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Pollak, Markus |
|---|---|
| Title | Mimicking Election Monitoring: A Challenge to the Liberal International Order by Contesting Democracy Promotion? |
| Summary | Since the 2000s, several regional organizations, such as the CIS and UNASUR, started to practice parallel election monitoring and are often accused of being reluctant to take a critical stance on elections. Given the prior existence of established LIO-related international election monitoring institutions like the OSCE and OAS, the question arises why parallel election monitoring structures were established and what impact they may have on the practice of international election observation and the Liberal International Order (LIO). This thesis argues that parallel election monitoring is a form of liberal mimicry, a power-political strategy of low intensity aiming to fragment and discredit existing, LIO-related norms of liberal democracy promotion. While seemingly identifying with liberal-democratic norms of election monitoring, the mimicking agent fills the norm with new meaning. Based on 8 semi-structured expert interviews with practitioners and a subsequent thematic analysis, I find that, in the case of the CISīs parallel election monitoring, there is a focus on national legislation over international commitments, pluralism, the legitimacy of the host government, as well as the rejection of “Western” universalism and overly technical approaches. Identifying discourses of antagonization, discreditation, and competition, the findings suggest that an increasing polarization and fragmentation of the international election monitoring landscape, challenging the universalizing narratives of LIO-related democracy promotion, may be ongoing. |
| Supervisor | Xymena Kurowska |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/pollak_markus.pdf |
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