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Title [sv]
Genusaspekter på valrelaterat våld: En enkätstudie av politiska kandidater i Myanmar och Kambodja
Title [en]
Gender aspects of electoral violence: Surveying political candidates in Myanmar and Cambodia
Abstract [en]
This project seeks to explore intimidation and violence targeting politicians, with a particular focus on potential gender differences. It distinguishes itself from existing research on election violence in at least three ways: it focuses on a region less researched by zooming in on Asia (Cambodia and Myanmar), it focuses on violence directly targeting politicians, and, importantly, it explores gender differences in the type of intimidation and violence experienced.Election violence is an important issue from a number of perspectives. Understanding the causes and consequences of inter-personal physical violence is always relevant and important, but election violence also violates a fundamental democratic principle: free and fair elections. Seen from a democratic perspective, election violence is often used in order to affect electoral outcomes or to intimidate or threaten certain politicians from running a campaign or delivering their message. Election violence is therefore more than a violation of personal integrity; it also violates electoral integrity and decreases democratic quality (Norris 2013)By taking its starting-point in electoral integrity, the relevant definition of election violence here departs from the purpose of the violent acts. Acts of intimidation, threats, physical and psychological violence with the purpose of affecting an electoral outcome or preventing someone from running in an election are all relevant acts to focus on from this perspective. This means that the range of activities defined as election violence is broad and should not be confined to an exclusive focus on physical violence. While physical violence can influence elections in very direct ways, by preventing candidates from campaigning or standing for elections, threats and intimidation create fear and can be highly efficient means to influence individual decisions (Höglund 2009). It is also when looking at election violence from an electoral integrity perspective that we come to realize that different forms of violence and intimidation may be targeting different types of people. A report that has documented incidents of election violence does suggest that there is a gendered dimension that needs further scrutiny. The report indicates that while female victims of election violence most often reported intimidation and psychological abuse, male victims typically experienced physical violence taking place in the public sphere (Bardall 2011). So far, no study has applied these insights to the experiences of politicians during elections.If there are, indeed, diverging experiences of male and female politicians during election periods, we need to design studies that are able to capture these different experiences. This project will build on earlier research as well as practical experiences in order to do so. It will combine insights from aggregated studies of incidents of election violence and interview-based case studies to design a survey study that records individual experiences, but in a systematic manner. It will survey political candidates, men and women, in Myanmar and Cambodia ‚Äì two countries where election violence is a pertinent problem thwarting democratic development. The survey will be undertaken in close cooperation with international organizations with local offices in these countries. The project departs from the concern that if a large number of intimidating activities are undertaken in order to prevent women from running to office, but research and activities still are biased towards physical acts of election violence, what is captured and targeted may be a very masculine experience of election violence. This project is needed in order to fully map the range of illicit methods that are used to affect election outcomes, and to be able to subsequently design and implement programs and activities that mitigate the risks for both male and female politicians running for election.
Principal InvestigatorBjarnegård, Elin
Coordinating organisation
Uppsala University
Funder
Period
2016-01-01 － 2018-12-31
National Category
Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies)
Identifiers
DiVA, id: project:5691Project, id: 2015-03488_VR
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