In this talk, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas show how to rig an election - with the hopes that the lesson will help save democracy.

The greatest political paradox of our time is this: there are more elections than ever before but the world is becoming less democratic. Elections are often the frontlines in a global battle for democracy. Dictators, despots, and counterfeit democrats hold elections to legitimize their regime, but then rig them to ensure that they maintain their iron grip on power. Vote buying. Violent repression. Assassinating rivals. Gerrymandering. Voter suppression. Ballot box stuffing. And the digital frontier of hacking and disinformation campaigns. 

Nic Cheeseman (@Fromagehomme) is Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham and was formerly the Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford University. He is the recipient of the GIGA award for the best article in Comparative Area Studies (2013) and the Frank Cass Award for the best article in Democratization (2015). He is also the author of Democracy in Africa: Successes, failures and the struggle for political reform (Cambridge University Press, 2015), the founding editor of the Oxford Encyclopaedia of African Politics, a former editor of the journal African Affairs, and an advisor to, and writer for, Kofi Annan's African Progress Panel. 

Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) is a Fellow in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics. Klaas is an expert on democracy, authoritarianism, American politics, and elections. He is the author of The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy, The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding & Abetting the Decline of Democracy, and How to Rig an Election (co-authored with Professor Nic Cheeseman; Yale University Press 2018). Klaas is also a columnist for The Washington Post.

Catherine Boone joined the LSE as Professor of Comparative Politics in 2013. She holds a BA from the University of California, and Ph.D from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The Department of Government (@LSEGovernment) at LSE is one of the largest political science departments in the UK. Our activities cover a comprehensive range of approaches to the study of politics.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEelections

Podcast 

A podcast of this event is available to download from How to Rig an Election. 

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.