Awards

• Winner of *Cowinner, 2011 Chadwick F. Alger Prize (Internati.
• Winner of •Cowinner, 2011 Chadwick F. Alger Prize (Internati.

Overview

Why did election monitoring become an international norm? Why do pseudo-democrats-undemocratic leaders who present themselves as democratic-invite international observers, even when they are likely to be caught manipulating elections? Is election observation an effective tool of democracy promotion, or is it simply a way to legitimize electoral autocracies? In The Pseudo-Democrat's Dilemma, Susan D. Hyde explains international election monitoring with a new theory of international norm formation. Hyde argues that election observation was initiated by states seeking international support. International benefits tied to democracy give some governments an incentive to signal their commitment to democratization without having to give up power. Invitations to nonpartisan foreigners to monitor elections, and avoiding their criticism, became a widely recognized and imitated signal of a government's purported commitment to democratic elections. Hyde draws on cross-national data on the global spread of election observation between 1960 and 2006, detailed descriptions of the characteristics of countries that do and do not invite observers, and evidence of three ways that election monitoring is costly to pseudo-democrats: micro-level experimental tests from elections in Armenia and Indonesia showing that observers can deter election-day fraud and otherwise improve the quality of elections; illustrative cases demonstrating that international benefits are contingent on democracy in countries like Haiti, Peru, Togo, and Zimbabwe; and qualitative evidence documenting the escalating game of strategic manipulation among pseudo-democrats, international monitors, and pro-democracy forces.

Full Product Details

9780801449666

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Reviews

<p> This is a first-rate book. It is well written, well argued, thorough, creative, and, on top of it all, presents a theory about something that is of great practical and theoretical interest. Susan D. Hyde accounts for the rise of the international norm of election monitoring as the result of leaders' desire to signal to the international community their democratic credentials, even if they are not real democrats. The Pseudo-Democrat's Dilemma is an example of truly theoretically informed empirical research, in which the author invokes the best available methods to subject her theory to tests. Jose Antonio Cheibub, University of Illinois, author of Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, and Democracy

<p> This is a first-rate book. It is well written, well argued, thorough, creative, and, on top of it all, presents a theory about something that is of great practical and theoretical interest. Susan D. Hyde accounts for the rise of the international norm of election monitoring as the result of leaders' desire to signal to the international community their democratic credentials, even if they are not real democrats. The Pseudo-Democrat's Dilemma is an example of truly theoretically informed empirical research, in which the author invokes the best available methods to subject her theory to tests. -Jos Antonio Cheibub, University of Illinois, author of Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, and Democracy

Author Information

Susan D. Hyde is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at Yale University. To date, she has been on seven observer missions for three organizations in Afghanistan, Albania, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, and Venezuela. She is coeditor of Election Fraud: Detecting and Deterring Election Manipulation.

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