Cambodia\u27s 1998 Elections: The Failure of Democratic Consolidation

This article examines why Cambodia \u27s transition to democracy faltered in the years that followed the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia period despite the international community\u27s assistance to two democratic elections

Does political party aid compensate for the limitations of international elections observation?

International elections observation cannot make an election free and fair. In any case this would not guarantee well-institutionalised political parties and party competition or the consolidation of liberal democracy. Parties influence elections. Could international assistance to parties help compensate for the limitations of elections observation? The reality is that party aid has limitations of its own. Closer coordination of elections and party support may offer a partial solution but is not unproblematic

Institutional legitimacy in sub-Saharan Africa

How do personal encounters with legal institutions shape citizens’ confidence in those institutions throughout sub-Saharan Africa? Using Afrobarometer’s cross-national citizen survey, we show that negative first-hand experiences with government courts and police erode citizens’ trust in those state institutions but do not tend to disrupt citizens’ perceptions of their authority to arbitrate or enforce the law. Individuals from diverse demographic backgrounds imbue state institutions with the right to perform their governance and law-enforcement duties, even after experiencing institutional incompetence or injustice. This article advances existing comparative research on legal institutions, which tends to conflate trust and legitimacy and overlooks the distinction between de facto performance and de jure authority. We suggest that rule-of-law institutions have deeper roots than some scholars have previously supposed