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Continuing our series of commentaries on recent developments in Russia, we are pleased to welcome the following guest post from Thomas Remington of Emory University: Press reports in both Russia and the US of the large-scale protests against election fraud in Moscow and other large cities are characterizing this movement as the political mobilization of […]

I have an op-ed on Al Jazeera English in which I propose two different ways of thinking about recent events in Russia, both of which are based on theoretical arguments I have put forward in academic journals (see here and here) in recent years. One focuses on the ability of fraudulent elections to serve as […]

Our next Russian election post comes from Sam Greene of the New Economic School in Moscow, Russia. ************** If we want to start to understand the meaning and potential consequences of what has been happening in Russia since (and, indeed, somewhat before) the Duma elections on December 4, I think we need to ask one […]

Our next election report comes from Regina Smyth of Indiana University, who is currently spending the year in Moscow, Russia. ************* Long before polling began in Russia’s December parliamentary election, it was clear that the uneventful contest that the Kremlin hoped for was not going as planned. In a rare misstep, the Kremlin’s political strategists […]

We are pleased to welcome Dario Cepo, an associate in the Miroslav Krleza Lexicographic Institute with the following post-election report on the Sunday’s Croatian parliamentary elections. **** This past Sunday’s general elections in Croatia saw a landslide victory for the opposition four party Kukuriku coalition, led by the left-of-centre Social Democratic Party (SDP), as well […]

By now, we all know the score in terms of Russian elections. An election is called, the state employs its “administrative resources” to ensure huge advantages for the ruling party or candidate, a little bit of fraud is added in when necessary (or a lot if you happen to live in Chechnya), and, voila! The […]

One of the ways to get a handle on the current Egyptian elections is to try to compare them to the first set of post-communist elections. Some similarities are immediately apparent. Turnout is high. The forces of the “Old Regime” are apparently doing badly. But perhaps more illustrative, however are the following differences: First, the […]

Sad news from Scott Mainwaring: This afternoon, Guillermo O’Donnell passed away after a 4-month battle with cancer. Guillermo was the founding academic director of the Kellogg Institute and one of the most influential and creative political scientists in the world from 1973 until his death. Guillermo was known for his courageous stances against authoritarian regimes […]

Taking a break from forecasting the US Presidential elections, we are pleased to welcome back David Jandura, a graduate student at Georgetown University, with the following guest post on forecasting the Egyptian elections: Although it is difficult to predict many aspects of Egypt’s parliamentary election, most observers assume that the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party will win […]

Continuing our series of election reports, we are pleased to welcome the following post-election report on today’s historic Tunisian elections from Professor Jason Brownlee of the University of Texas, Austin, the author of Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization. Brownlee, who is in Tunisia observing the elections, is currently co-authoring, with Andrew Reynolds and Tarek […]