International election monitors strive to uphold international norms, but their assessments are not always as depoliticized as envisioned. This criticism is not new, but it has hitherto always been anecdotal. Through analysis of case studies and a global dataset, this article systematically identifies some of the predispositions of international election monitors and opens a debate about their implications.
About the Author
Judith Kelley, associate professor of public policy and political science at Duke University, has published widely in such journals as International Organization and the American Political Science Review. She is also the principal investigator of the National Science Foundation–sponsored Project on International Election Monitoring.
Nonpartisan election monitoring has helped to foster democratization over the last thirty years, but now dictators are trying to sabotage it, often by spreading lies and confusion.
