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Tag: Violence

  • Gender and Violence against Political Candidates: Lessons from Sri Lanka

    Gender and Violence against Political Candidates: Lessons from Sri Lanka

    Does election violence target women differently than men? Bjarnegård, Håkansson, and Zetterberg (2022) find that while male and female candidates in Sri Lanka face similar overall levels of violence, women experience more sexual intimidation.

    As the authors explain, an emerging body of research highlights the broad forms of violence women encounter when entering political life. Within this scholarship, two main interpretations exist: one views this violence as primarily driven by gender, where women are targeted simply because they are women, while the other sees it as a routine political tactic directed at candidates of any sex. However, because researchers have lacked large-scale, systematic comparisons of male and female candidates, little is known about how a candidate’s sex actually shapes their exposure to election-related violence.

    To address this gap, Bjarnegård, Håkansson, and Zetterberg examined original survey data from 197 male and female candidates in Sri Lanka’s 2018 local elections. Sri Lanka serves as a fitting case because it is a postconflict country with widespread political violence and a rapid rise in women candidates following the adoption of gender quotas. Ultimately, the authors observed broad similarities in the overall violence experienced by men and women, suggesting that violence often operates as part of a wider political practice. At the same time, women were exposed to forms of intimidation of a sexual nature far more often than men, demonstrating the critical need for gender-sensitive approaches to studying election violence.

    Learn more about this article here:

    Bjarnegård, E., Håkansson, S., & Zetterberg, P. (2022). Gender and Violence against Political Candidates: Lessons from Sri Lanka. Politics & Gender, 18(1), 33–61. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X20000471

  • Electoral violence: An introduction

    Electoral violence: An introduction

    Why do elections frequently lead to conflict instead of peace? Birch, Daxecker, and Höglund (2020) explain that outside established democracies, voting often involves electoral violence, which operates as a distinct subtype of political violence.

    In introducing this special issue, the authors point out that while elections take place across almost every country today to ensure peaceful transfers of power, contests held outside consolidated democracies are often accompanied by significant violence. Birch, Daxecker, and Höglund emphasize that electoral violence has its own analytical and empirical dynamics, making it distinct from other forms of organized violence and qualitatively different from nonviolent electoral manipulation.

    The authors review existing knowledge regarding the causes and consequences of electoral violence, point out notable research gaps, and present the collection of articles in the issue. These contributions advance the literature across four core areas: the micro-level targeting and consequences of electoral violence, its institutional roots, the factors that create high-stakes elections, and how electoral violence fits into broader patterns of organized violence. Finally, Birch, Daxecker, and Höglund emphasize the geographic and methodological breadth of the studies, which examine Africa, Latin America, and Asia using ethnography, survey data, vignette and list experiments, and quantitative subnational and crossnational event data.

    Learn more about this article here:

    Birch, S., Daxecker, U., & Höglund, K. (2020). Electoral violence: An introduction. Journal of Peace Research, 57(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343319889657