By Chloe Bordewich, Avery Davis-Roberts & David Carroll, The Carter Center
I. Introduction
“Genuine democratic elections are an expression of sovereignty, which belongs to the people of a country, the free expression of whose will provides the basis for the authority and legitimacy of a government,” begins the 2005 Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation. [1] Election observation is fundamentally an exercise in support of this principle. International observers serve as impartial watchdogs who can assess whether the results of an election truly reflect the will of the people.
Genuine democratic elections do not guarantee democratic governance, but are a prerequisite for it. They provide political legitimacy for elected leaders and a foundation from which to govern, reducing the scope for non-democratic challenges to power. They serve to resolve competition for political power peacefully and are more likely to lead to stability than non-democratic forms of succession.
International election observation is one of several activities that have emerged over the last few decades in an effort to promote transitions to democratic forms of governance. From the mid-1980s to 2004, the proportion of elections in “non-established democracies” monitored by international observers rose from less than 10 percent to 85 percent. [2] By another measure, 80 percent of elections worldwide were monitored in 2006. [3] As Susan Hyde notes, the public now views with suspicion elections from which international observers are barred, and leaders of semi-democratic or transitional regimes are more eager than ever to win international observers’ imprimatur. The observation norm has spread beyond Western democracies. In 2009, for example, The Bangkok Post and the Iranian League for the Defense of Human Rights, as well as U.S. President Barack Obama, expressed grave doubts about Iran’s election results based on the absence of observers. [4]
The objectives and impact of observers must not be overstated. While often attributed a wide range of aims and objectives, election observation’s core goals are modest but important. They are to:
- Provide accurate and impartial reporting on the quality of elections to the public, media, and international community, including the degree to which the conduct of elections meets international standards; and
- Demonstrate the interest of the international community in the host country’s elections and democratization.
International election observation in the interest of promoting genuine democratic elections ultimately should strive to make itself unnecessary. For the foreseeable future, however, international observation will continue to play an important role. One observed election that upholds a country’s international commitments does not consolidate democratic governance and backsliding to authoritarianism, with or without elections, is not uncommon. Observers must continue to innovate in order to meet the challenges brought by the emergence of new topic areas and the evolving use of technology. In addition, international election observers must maximize the mutual benefits of working side-by-side with citizen observers.
This Focus On provides an analysis of the factors that guide, influence, and challenge international observation organizations and individual observers.
Part II, “What is International Election Observation?” introduces the field. It defines international election observation and its goals, and outlines conditions for observation.
Part III, “Origins and Evolution of International Observation,” surveys the birth and growth of monitoring from its roots in the mid-20th-century to the streamlining of methodology and proliferation of practitioners in the 2000s.
Part IV, “Approaches to Observation: Methodology and Tools,” examines efforts to reach consensus on assessment standards, compares mission models across observation organizations, and reviews tools developed to aid observers in their work.
Part V, “Stakeholder Relationships,” explores international observers’ interactions with host governments, citizen observers, political parties, media, donors, and each other.
Part VI, “Challenges to International Observation,” outlines unresolved questions and obstacles to the field, and
Part VII, “Conclusion,” speculates on its future.
[1] United Nations, Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and Code of Conduct for International Election Observers (New York: United Nations, 2005), 1.
[2] Judith G. Kelley, Monitoring Democracy: When Election Observation Works, and Why It Often Fails (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), 16.
[3] Susan D. Hyde, The Pseudo-Democrat’s Dilemma: Why Election Observation Became an International Norm (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011), 3.
[4] Hyde, Pseudo-Democrat’s Dilemma, 1-2.
