Election assistance: on the edge between work into quality of elections to accusations in external interference

10.54398/1818510Х_2023_4_132

Annotation

International electoral support is able to contribute to the formation and development of democratic systems, implement the adjustment of electoral institutions that ensure the conduct of elections, credible voters and foreign observers. The effectiveness and efficiency of electoral assistance is quite difficult to measure quantitatively and qualitatively, and criticism of international support programs is based on the argument of increasing the risks of electoral security. At the same time, the potential risks associated with the participation of sovereign states in international electoral support programs are only one of the challenges to electoral security, systemic approaches to the analysis of which, including taking into account new threats of a sanitary-epidemiological and cybernetic nature, are only being formed. The purpose of the article is to analyze the possible advantages and potential risks for the system of ensuring the electoral security of the state, which are associated with the participation of the subject of international relations in the programs of international electoral support. The theoretical and methodological basis was the institutional, neo-institutional and network approaches. The relevance of the article is due to the lack of works analyzing electoral security as a system, including taking into account the latest challenges, as well as the place of international electoral support in the electoral security system. A number of proposals have been formulated aimed at minimizing the risks of the electoral security of a subject of international relations and clarifying the possibilities of international electoral support, consistent with the tasks of ensuring the national security of the state.

Keywords

• democratization
• election system
• elections
• election security
• international observation
• international institutes
• election support
• election assistance
• meddling
• interference
• double standard
• sovereignty
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