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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Resilience of Civil Society Organizations in Electoral Processes: Empirical Evidence on Restrictions, Responses, and Sources of Resilience

The Resilience of Civil Society Organizations in Electoral Processes: Empirical Evidence on Restrictions, Responses, and Sources of Resilience

Wagner, Rebecca

Paperback

General Political ScienceSocial Movements

PREORDER - Expected ship date February 26, 2027

ISBN10: 3658535385
ISBN13: 9783658535384
Publisher: Springer vs
Published: Feb 26 2027
Pages: 400
Language: English

Elections are supposed to be democracy' safeguard. Yet across the world, the very citizen who watch over them -- citizen election observers -- are being harassed, defamed, criminalized, and driven into exile. The question arises: Why do some survive, and others disappear? This book develops the concept of electoral resilience to answer that question. Drawing on two decades of political history in Kyrgyzstan and a global survey of citizen election observers across five continents, it shows that the ability of civil society organizations to withstand shrinking civic space in elections is not only a matter of courage or commitment. It also depends on structural foundations -- formal networks, organizational preparedness, local expertise, and international support -- that can be built, sustained, and ultimatly lost again. The findings of the books arrive at a critical moment. The suspension of US democracy assistance in 2025 exposed the fragility of the international democracy aid system. It also raises questions about what domestic democratic actors require to maintain their capacities. Electoral Resilience offers the first systematic framework for understanding why citizen election observers resist, adapt, or resign in the face of autocratization, and what it would take to protect them. It is essential reading for scholars of democratization, practitioners of democracy assistance, and anyone who believes that free and fair elections still matter.

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