Surviving Elections: Government-Sponsored Election Violence and Leader Tenure Emilie M. Hafner-Burton Associate Professor School of International Relations and Pacific Studies University of California, San Diego
[email protected] Susan D. Hyde Associate Professor Department of Political Science Yale University
[email protected] Ryan S. Jablonski Lecturer Department of Government London School of Economics and Political Science
[email protected] Draft: 3/27/14 Abstract When governments use election violence against their own citizens, are they more likely to remain in power? Using the National Elections Across Democracy and Autocracy (NELDA) data for the period 1981-2004, we demonstrate that using election violence produces a costly tradeoff for governments. When used in the pre-election period, up to and including election day, government-sponsored election violence against opposition supporters, candidates, and the citizenry increases the probability that opposition political parties boycott the election and the incumbent wins. Yet pre-election violence also increases the probability of mass post-election protests by the opposition, which in turn makes it more likely that the incumbent will face significant costs in the post-election period, including resignation, coup, or new elections. Government violence against protesters does not decrease these odds. Overall, an incumbent’s use of election violence can inadvertently undermine the benefits of electoral victory and potentially lead to greater political liberalization. Surviving Elections: Government-Sponsored Election Violence and Leader Tenure1 In some countries, political participation is a dangerous business. In Hun Sen’s Cambodia, where he has been in power for most of the past three decades, government sponsored election violence and intimidation are among the tools by which the incumbent Cambodian People’s Party has remained in power (Human Rights Watch, 2003; McCargo, 2005).