1. Introduction; 2. Election-Related Violence in Kenya and Around the World; 3. Theorizing Election-Related Violence: Toward a Theory of Elite Misperception; 4 Violence and Election Outcomes; 5. How Violence Affects Voting: Coercion, Persuasion, and Backlash; 6. Elite Misperception and Election-Related Violence; 7. Voter Backlash, Elite Misperception, and Violence Beyond Kenya; 8. Conclusion.
Explores the causes and effects of election-related violence, analyzing why politicians employ violence and how their electorate responds.
Steven C. Rosenzweig is Assistant Professor in Political Science at Boston University. His research focuses on electoral violence and democratic accountability.
'Do politicians benefit from using violence against voters?
Prevailing theories assume that violence works, but this
meticulously executed book suggests otherwise, showing that
violence does not help and may even hurt parties and candidates.
The book argues that elite misperceptions explain why politicians
use violence regardless, and presents sophisticated evidence for
voters and politicians in Kenya to support this claim. This
interesting twist on the logic of violence in electoral competition
will inspire scholarship for years to come.' Ursula Daxecker,
University of Amsterdam
'With an extremely important new book on election violence,
Rosenzweig documents a disconnect between elite perception and
citizen opinion, moving us much closer to understanding how to
meaningfully reduce election violence. He finds that strategies
used in founding elections play an outsized role in determining
what 'works' to win elections such that some countries fall into a
more violent pattern, and that politicians do not know the degree
to which election violence is highly unpopular. Together, these
findings suggest that politicians can be convinced that peaceful
elections are in their own best interest at the ballot box. Such
persuasion away from violence, driven ultimately by the
unpopularity of election violence among voters, has the potential
to create a new and more stable peace.' Susan Hyde, University of
California, Berkeley
'This highly compelling book is important in both scholarly and
substantive terms, as it provides a rigorous demonstration of the
cost of electoral violence to perpetrators. This is a message that
needs to get out to as many people as possible, to minimize the use
of violence as an electoral tool.' Sarah Birch, King's College
London
'Rosenzweig's contribution to theory is novel and important … His
empirical strategy is rich, detailed, and multifaceted,
demonstrating the best of contemporary comparative politics that
combines deep case knowledge, microlevel data collection, and
careful attention to inference with clearly delimited scope
conditions and attention to broader implications. With its careful
attention to detailed technical matters while achieving readability
and clarity, [the book] is also a masterclass for PhD students
wanting to learn how to successfully turn dissertations into first
books. I highly recommend this book to students and scholars of
contemporary democratic politics.' James D. Long, Perspectives on
Politics
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