Explaining electoral fraud in an advanced democracy: Fraud vulnerabilities, opportunities and facilitating mechanisms in British elections

Hill, E, Sobolewska, M, Wilks-Heeg, S ORCID: 0000-0003-2919-0875 and Borkowska, M (2017) Explaining electoral fraud in an advanced democracy: Fraud vulnerabilities, opportunities and facilitating mechanisms in British elections. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 19 (4). pp. 772-789.

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Abstract

Explanatory theories of electoral fraud are usually developed for new and failing democracies. However, while rarer, electoral fraud does happen in advanced democracies. Because data on fraud in advanced democracies are scarce, single instances of fraud are studied in isolation and offer very little generalisability. This study uses a unique comparative dataset of 35 in-depth, semi-structured interviews from eight locations, only half of which experienced allegations of fraud. We show that theories of why and how fraud happens in developing democracies can be extended to an advanced democracy. We also provide a detailed description of two micro-mechanisms, which facilitate fraud taking place and thus provide a causal link between the structural vulnerability to fraud and the direct opportunities for fraud to take place. The case study of Britain focuses mostly on the biraderi structures within the British South Asian communities, but we offer ways in which these structures generalise more broadly.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	biraderi, electoral campaigning, electoral fraud, political parties
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2017 10:58
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 06:50
DOI:	10.1177/1369148117715222
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3012379