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60 World Pol. 37 (2007-2008)
The Observer Effect in International Politics: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

handle is hein.journals/wpot60 and id is 46 raw text is: THE OBSERVER EFFECT IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS Evidence from a Natural Experiment By SUSAN D. HYDE* INTERNATIONAL actors now play a prominent role in domestic elections and other democratic processes throughout the developing world. They pressure governments to hold democratic elections and they directly engage in the electoral process through provision of tech- nical assistance and funding or by sending teams of observers to moni- tor elections. International influences on democratization are receiving a small but growing amount of scholarly attention, and international dimensions are increasingly accepted as relevant variables in theories of political transition.' Most recently, in a study of the international diffu- sion of democratization, Kristian Gleditsch and Michael Ward firmly reject the idea that institutional change is driven entirely by domestic * I wish to acknowledge valuable comments on previous drafts from Eric Bjornlund, Carew Bould- ing, Gary Cox, Don Green, Thad Dunning, Clark Gibson, Kristian Gleditsch, Peter Gourevitch, Da- vid Lake, Mat McCubbins, Irfan Nooruddin, Elizabeth Saunders, Sue Stokes, and the participants in several seminars. I also thank Anders Eriksson for making information available for this project. Any remaining errors are my own. I am grateful for research support from Yale University, the University of California's Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation, and the Brookings Institution. I For examples of this literature, see Paul W. Drake The International Causes of Democratiza- tion, 1974-1990, in Paul Drake and Matthew McCubbins, eds., The Origins ofLiberty: Political and Economic Liberalization in the Modern World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998); Kristian S. Gleditsch, All International Politics Is Local: The Diffusion of Conflict, Integration, and Democratiza- tion (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002); Kristian S. Gleditsch and Michael D. Ward, Diffusion and the International Context of Democratization, International Organization 60 (Octo- ber 2006); Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, International Linkage and Democratization,Journal of Democracy 16 (July 2005); Jon C. Pevehouse, Democracy from the Outside-In? International Orga- nizations and Democratization, International Organization 56 (August 2002); idem, Democracy fom Above? Regional Organizations and Democratization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Philippe C. Schmitter, The Influence of the International Context upon the Choice of National Institutions and Policies in Neo-Democracies, in Laurence Whitehead, ed., The InternationalDimen- sions ofDemocratization:Europe andtheAmericas (New Yoric Oxford University Press, 1996); Laurence Whitehead, ed., The InternationalDimensions ofDemocratization: Europe and the Americas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). For work specifically addressing international influences on elections, see Vikram K. Chand, Democratisation from the Outside In: NGo and International Efforts to Pro- mote Open Elections, Third World Quarterly 18 (September 1997); Jorgen Elklit and Palle Svensson, What Makes Elections Free and Fair?JournalofDemocracy 8 (July 1997); Liisa Laakso, The Politics of International Election Observation: The Case of Zimbabwe in 2000, Journal of Modern African Studies 40 (September 2002). World Politics 60 (October 2007), 37-63

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