Awards
- Winner of Winner, 2021 Robert L. Jervis-Paul W. Schroeder Best Book Award, International History and Politics Section, American Political Science Association.
Overview
Why do world powers sometimes try to determine who wins an election in another country? What effects does such meddling have on the targeted elections results? Great powers have attempted for centuries to intervene in elections occurring in other states through various covert and overt methods, with the American intervention in the 2013 Kenyan elections and the Russian intervention in the 2016 US elections being just two recent examples. Indeed, the Americans and the Soviets/Russians intervened in one out of every nine national-level executive elections between 1946 and 2000. Meddling in the Ballot Box is the first book to provide a comprehensive analysis of foreign meddling in elections from the dawn of the modern era to the 2016 Russian intervention in the US election. Dov Levin shows that partisan electoral interventions are usually an ""inside job"" occurring only if a significant domestic actor within the target wants it. Likewise, a great power will not intervene unless it fears that its interests are endangered by an opposing party or candidate with very different preferences. He also finds that partisan electoral interventions frequently have significant effects on the results--sufficient in many situations to determine the winner. Such interference also tends to be more effective when it is conducted overtly. However, it is usually ineffective, if not counterproductive, when done in a founding election. A revelatory account that explains why major powers have meddled so frequently across the entire postwar era, Meddling in the Ballot Box also provides us with a framework for assessing the cyber-future of interference.
Full Product Details
Author: Dov H. Levin (Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Administration, Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Administration, University of Hong Kong)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 23.10cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 15.50cm
Weight: 0.454kg
ISBN: 9780197519899
ISBN 10: 019751989
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 06 October 2020
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
Meddling in the Ballot Box is an utterly pathbreaking work on the important practice of foreign interference in elections. Though this phenomenon received widespread attention following the 2016 American election, Levin reminds us that it has been occurring for decades, even centuries. A critical contribution to both academic and foreign policy debates. * Dan Reiter, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Political Science, Emory University * A pathbreaking book on great power election meddling during the Cold War. With care and precision, Levin lays out the long pre-history to the Russian electoral interference in 2016 in astounding detail. He explains when and why electoral interventions are effective, and what forms of elector interventions are likely to work in the future. * Jack Goldsmith, Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law, Harvard University *
Author Information
Dov H. Levin is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Hong Kong. His main research topic is on the effects of foreign interference with a special focus on the causes, effects, and effectiveness of partisan electoral interventions.
