Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781107030541)

Why do parties and governments cheat in elections they cannot lose? This book documents the widespread use of blatant and excessive manipulation of elections and explains what drives this practice. Alberto Simpser shows that, in many instances, elections are about more than winning. Electoral manipulation is not only a tool used to gain votes, but also a means of transmitting or distorting information. This manipulation conveys an image of strength, shaping the behavior of citizens, bureaucrats, politicians, parties, unions, and businesspeople to the benefit of the manipulators, increasing the scope for the manipulators to pursue their goals while in government and mitigating future challenges to their hold on power. Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections provides a general theory about what drives electoral manipulation and empirically documents global patterns of manipulation.

Author: Alberto Simpser
ISBN-10: 1107030544
ISBN-13: 9781107030541
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/18/2013
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.90d