Four IFES experts presented papers on different aspects of the electoral cycle at the International Political Science Association biannual conference held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in mid-February. The four-day conference provided the IFES participants the opportunity to meet with academics studying topics in IFES’ field of work, exchange thoughts on elections and democracy, and establish ties for future academic research projects.

While it was fairly easy to see differences in how IFES approaches elections issues compared to how academics approach them, vital points of agreement between the two communities were discovered. Both the IFES experts and the academics agreed a collaboration would be very useful as the two camps bring different but equally important strengths to the analysis of electoral topics. The conclusions and relationships gained through the IPSA conference will help bolster IFES’ endeavor to bring deeper analysis to its practical expertise.

The four experts that presented papers at IPSA were Chad Vickery, regional director for Europe and Asia; Rakesh Sharma, director of the Applied Research Center; Staffan Darnolf, senior advisor; and Magnus Ohman, senior advisor in political finance.

To download their papers or for more information about the conference, please click here.