Doctoral Dissertation in Political Science: Contesting the Contest: Political Parties and Election Boycotts

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This dissertation research project will explain why political parties boycott elections. Since this is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject, covering a total of 626 elections in 168 countries since 1990, several aspects of election boycotts will be examined. Conditions under which parties boycott as well as the effects of boycotts will be explored. A case study comparison of Jamaica and the Dominican Republic will also be included. This project is distinct from previous treatments of the subject because it argues first and foremost that election boycotts are a strategic choice on the part of political parties. A decision model is used to explain how opposition parties navigate particular sets of political institutions, such as the availability of state party finance and rules of electoral participation, to determine the value of a boycott. A game theoretic model will be constructed to understand the choices that face incumbent governments, as well as opposition parties, where questions of international election monitoring are concerned, which in turn affect decisions to boycott. Broader Impact In addition to the creation of a new database on elections and election boycotts, and providing a new theoretical framework for considering the phenomenon of party election boycotts, this project will provide an important contribution to the study developing democracies and non-standard political strategies more generally. The hypotheses tested in this project will help explain why parties might find strategies other than classic vote seeking to be beneficial, and what effect these strategies have on the democratic process. Furthermore, the results of this project will tell us more about the effects of domestic policies, such as public finance and electoral procedures, on democratic quality in new democracies. Finally this study of election boycotts will help us better understand the effects of the international community, foreign aid, and election monitoring, on nascent democracy.