Publication | Report/Paper

Ensuring Equal Rights in the Elections Process

This paper addresses how, regardless of the differences in the electoral systems, most ‘unfair’ elections result from the political finance irregularities connected with unequal participation. A fair and competitive electoral process is necessary for the whole process of democratisation. The concept of fairness is closely connected with the notion of “a level playing field”. In fact, access to important political resources, such as political money, and equal opportunities indicate progress in democratic transition.

The collapse of the Soviet Union marked a fourth wave of regime change – to democracy and autocracy. The only certain outcome of this transition is the abandonment of Communism, and not, as expected, the ultimate establishment of the liberal democracy. Most of the post-Communist states are still hybrids, mixed polities or consolidated autocracies - only some can be classified as consolidated democracies.

The beginning of a democratic transition is often marked by competitive elections. In all modern democracies people participate by choosing their representatives in competitive elections; thus, such elections are critical instruments of democracy. As Hanna F. Pitkin argues, ‘Our concern with elections and electoral machinery, and particularly with whether elections are free and genuine, results from our conviction that such machinery is necessary to ensure systematic responsiveness.’ Thus it would be difficult to consider any system as one of representative government unless it held regular elections which were “genuine” and “free”. Free and fair elections are, in other words, a prerequisite of the existence of democratic regimes. Moreover, as Giovanni Sartori writes, the function of elections ‘is not to make democracy more democratic but to make it possible.’ In analysing the effects of electoral competition one should not pass over the quality of the elections in silence. The degree to which elections are “free” and “fair” is significant for the evaluation of the progress made in democratisation.