Electoral Protest and Democracy in the Developing World

Emily Beaulieu is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Kentucky. She has also published work on political economy and democracy in outlets such as International Organization and Comparative Political Studies. She is working on several projects on political violence, and recently received a TESS grant to study the impact of partisanship and political polarization on perceptions of election fraud. She received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego.

'In this book, Beaulieu proposes and tests an important new theory of why authoritarian leaders agree to hold more or less competitive elections, and why such processes sometimes descend into protests and reversals. It is a story of problems for incumbents to make credible commitments and of information deficits leading to 'bargaining failures' in transition processes. With a carefully designed study involving rigorous quantitative analyses as well as a wealth of qualitative case analyses, Beaulieu makes an inspiring and significant contribution to the study of the role of elections in competitive electoral regimes.' Staffan I. Lindberg, University of Gothenburg

• 1. Introduction; 2. Elite bargaining and developing world elections; 3. Causes of electoral protest; 4. Election day and its aftermath; 5. Democratic consequences of electoral protest; 6. Conclusion; Appendix A. Data and robustness; Appendix B. Boycotts; Appendix C. Demonstrations; Appendix D. Reforms.