POL S 220 A: How to Steal an Election

Course Description:

One of the greatest contemporary challenges to democracy globally arises from the strategies that nefarious political actors use to rig elections and undermine electoral integrity. Why are elections worth stealing; who (tries to) steal them and in what ways; and what, if anything, can be done to secure elections in the 21^st century?

This course will survey the many strategies political actors use to influence elections unfairly and illicitly in modern democracies, and present emerging evidence-based methods that can improve electoral integrity. 

In Module 1, the course will begin by defining “democracy” and why democratic elections are the preferred method to decide political order across the globe today. In Module 2, the course delves into the diversity of strategies that a range of political actors use to undermine elections and gain unfair advantage, including (but not limited to): violations of campaign finance laws, vote-buying, campaign violence, online misinformation, altering vote totals, weaponizing electoral integrity, security breaches of sensitive electoral infrastructure, rejecting fair results, and lawfare prosecutions. For each strategy, the course will outline the problem, the theoretical underpinnings driving rigging strategies, empirical applications in a set of cases, and in Module 3, review how institutions, actors, and the general public can work to prevent election fraud. The course will draw on cases from both older and wealthier democracies (e.g., US, Great Britain, France, Italy); emerging, developing democracies (e.g., India, Kenya, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil); and countries where democracy has all but recently collapsed (e.g., Afghanistan, Russia, Venezuela).

Learning Objectives:

• To understand why countries “bother with elections,” and the normative and empirical benefits of democratic regime type and elections as selection mechanisms for leaders in the modern world, including why and how democracies are more inclusive than non-democracies; why and how democracies have better representation, participation, and accountability than non-democracies; why and how democracies better provide for public services and protect minority rights than non-democracies; and why and how democracies are better at resolving political and social conflicts through peaceful means than non-democracies.
• To understand why political actors think elections are worth stealing and the many strategies that nefarious actors employ to gain unfair advantage, including related to campaign finance laws; vote-buying; campaign violence; online misinformation; altering vote totals; weaponizing electoral integrity; security breaches of sensitive electoral infrastructure; rejecting fair results; and lawfare prosecutions – with attention paid to the local, country-level, regional, and international sources of these actions.
• To understand the political, social, and economic impacts of rigging and threats to election security and integrity, including how it erodes the positive benefits of electoral mechanisms to improve representation and accountability; how it selects for corrupt leaders and leads to skewed policy outcomes to benefit well-connected individuals, groups, or interests at the expense of society as a whole and marginalized communities; how it erodes citizens’ faith and participation in democratic practices; how it undermines the fair application of rule of law “without fear or fear;” how it leads to domestic protest, violence, and human rights violations; how it leads to regional and international security crises; and how it disrupts healthy economies and the government’s provision of public services.
• To understand the means by which institutions, actors, and the general public can work to prevent election fraud, including whether and how international observation of elections and development funds for “democracy promotion” actually help to support democratization; whether and how citizen observers and social movements can shore up civil society efforts to improve elections; and the roles of technology and industry actors to help make critical election infrastructure more secure.
• To gain case study knowledge from older and wealthier democracies that are generally well-studied in the social sciences but often overlooked when it comes to electoral integrity due to the assumption that elections are well-maintained (e.g., US, Great Britain, France, Italy); in emerging, developing democracies which are less well-studied in the social sciences but where people assume fraud is endemic (e.g., India, Kenya, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil); and countries where democracy has all but collapsed but citizens continue to mobilize in support of elections (e.g., Afghanistan, Russia, Venezuela).

  Course Evaluation:

  Quiz Section: 30% 

  Midterm: 30% 

  Final Exam: 40% 

Required Texts/Readings:

• Adam Przeworski, Why Bother With Elections?, Polity, 2018
• Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klass, How to Rig and Election, Yale University Press, 2018 (original edition) or 2019 (updated edition) – either edition is acceptable, but updated is preferred; *do not* get the updated updated edition that will be published in October 2024*.

Textbooks (available at UW bookstore, online, via e-book at UW library; new, used, hard copy or electronic version acceptable). To remain good students, engaged citizens, and for success in this class, students should consume a regular diet of global news from reputable sources such as The New York Times, Washington Post, PBS/NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera English, among others. Students will often come across names or places that they may not recognize – if so, they should do quick Google searches to orient themselves. Professor Long also tweets at @prof_jameslong, where he often has links or short commentary on current events.