Anaïd Flesken (U. of Bristol) - Ethnicity and perceptions of electoral integrity - 26 Apr 2016
Channel: Electoral Integrity Project
Date: 2016-04-26

Download the paper at: http://bit.ly/1pAmb0d
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Attitudinal research on political support consistently shows that electoral losers are less satisfied with the way democracy works in their country than electoral winners, and recent research suggests that the pattern extends to perceptions of electoral integrity: losers are more likely to report electoral malpractice than winners, and the effect is stronger if respondents lost repeatedly. Marginalized ethnic groups are, by their very definition, consistently losing, which is expected to undermine minorities’ perceptions of electoral integrity and, in the longer term, support for the political system as a whole. This paper examines ethnic status group differences in the perception of electoral integrity, using the electoral integrity battery included in the latest World Values Survey wave as well as corresponding expert assessments from the Perceptions of Electoral Integrity Index. Contrary to widespread expectations, ethnic differences are insignificant or insubstantial; differences in perceptions of electoral integrity are explained mainly by political partisanship. The results suggest, first, that substantive representation is more important than descriptive representation, even in ethnically divided societies. Second, they suggest that the winner–loser gap in political attitudes more generally is not due to a psychological “sore loser” effect after elections but to the extent to which respondents feel represented in between elections.

Discussant: Professor Karen Bird (McMaster University)
Chair: Max Grömping (University of Sydney)

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The Electoral Integrity Project is an independent research team based at the University of Sydney and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. It explores many issues, focusing upon three main questions: 

- When do elections meet international standards of electoral integrity? 
- What happens when elections fail to do so? 
- And what can be done to mitigate these problems? 

For more information see: www.electoralintegrityproject.com