Join USAID's Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) Bureau on September 21 for a presentation and interactive discussion with Dr. George Ofosu.
Election fraud is widely believed to undermine political responsiveness. However, Dr. Ofosu argues that there are theoretical and empirical reasons to doubt such an assumption and, thus, a need for a systematic test. His research provides an innovative approach to test whether and why credible elections induce political responsiveness. The study first demonstrates that election observation - a popular strategy used by civil society and international organizations to promote election fairness- limits election fraud and violence when deployed at high intensities. Focusing on legislators, the research further shows that restricting politicians' ability to rig elections encourages them to work hard to satisfy citizens' demands.
Recording available here.