Abstract
‘If elections are often deeply flawed or even broken in many countries around the world, as widely recognised, what can be done to fix them?’ (p. 4). This is the main question Pippa Norris asks in the final volume of her trilogy on electoral integrity. The volume is focused on interventions by the international community and local stakeholders aimed at strengthening electoral integrity, including journalism education and training. As Norris explains, the book ‘evaluates the effectiveness of several practical remedies, including efforts designed to reform electoral laws, strengthen women’s representation, build effective electoral management bodies, promote balanced campaign communications, regulate political money, and improve voter registration’ (p. 4). The book is split into four main parts. Part I, ‘Introduction: Does Electoral Assistance Work?’, includes the introductory chapter making the pragmatic case for electoral assistance. Part II, ‘Evaluating Electoral Assistance’, consists of three chapters – defining what electoral assistance is, evaluating its effectiveness and investigating the threats and opportunities facing electoral assistance. Part III, ‘The Strengths and Weaknesses of Electoral Assistance Programs’, comprises five chapters: ‘Reforming Electoral Laws’, ‘Strengthening Women’s Representation’, ‘Supporting Independent Media’, ‘Regulating Political Finance’ and ‘Improving Voter Registration’. The final part, ‘Conclusions: Lessons Learned’, includes the concluding chapter. The only chapter in the book examining the role of the media ‘focuses upon the impact of programs of formal educational providing training for news workers as one of the most common types of activities by international organisations and domestic stakeholders’ (p. 188). Norris identifies four main types of programmes: communication for development initiatives, public diplomacy programmes, infrastructure investments and media assistance programmes. The chapter tests two main assumptions that inform these programmes. The first assumption is that journalism training can change or mould journalists’ role orientations and ‘their perceptions about the functions of the news media’ (p. 188). The second assumption is that promoting the neutral reporters and engaged watchdogs roles would inevitably lead to improvements in the ‘quality of campaign coverage, electoral integrity and liberal democracy’ (p. 188). The chapter draws upon data from the second wave of the Worlds of Journalism study. The conclusions Norris reaches is that role orientations ‘are significantly associated with indicators of overall levels of electoral integrity in each country…, freedom of the press and levels of democratization’ and that it remains unclear whether journalism training and education can ‘alter the predominant way that journalists see their work’ (p. 211). All in all, her book’s core argument supported by the evidence she presents is that ‘effective programs can indeed improve electoral integrity and thus the quality of democratic governance – while also acknowledging that aid agencies need to be more strategic and coherent to make interventions work better’ (p. 22). The book is an interesting read for political communication scholars.