Member-only story
Elections Do Not Democratize — They Legitimize Power
The impetus is on citizens to ensure that elections are conducted fairly.
Over the past few months, I’ve noticed that some writers have stated that the US election system is the last fragment of American democracy. They are saying this as American elected leaders continue to sow doubts about the validity of the November election results. Some political theorists stand by these writers’ line of thinking. They believe that elections, even flawed ones, can lead to a transition to democratic leadership in authoritarian countries and backsliding democracies alike.
Elections can be a result of democratization, but they do not create more democracy. We can look at an American example to demonstrate this. In the 2016 and 2018 elections, only 61% and 53%, respectively, of voting-age Americans went to the polls. How can a government claim to be representative of all citizens if only half of them vote? It ensures that certain people’s views are considered more than others’.
The failings of elections are even more noticeable when you look at different governments around the world. Authoritarian, anocratic/semi-democratic, and democratic governments all conduct elections. The ways in which they conduct these elections differ. In authoritarian states, regimes often hold…
