Fighting Electoral Corruption in the Post-Soviet States: Strategies and Role(s) of Observers Movements

This study investigates organisations that fight against electoral fraud and electoral corruption in three post-Soviet states: Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The paper presents final results of a PhD research project that focuses on the strategies of civil society actors in hybrid regimes and their roles for the domestic political process. Scholarly debate on civil society in post-Soviet states has been caught in a long-standing paradox: on the one hand, the whole notion of civil society has been resurrected and reinstated in a broad public and academic debate due to the momentous events of transition from communist authoritarian rule. On the other hand, soon after transition, civil society in the post-Soviet states has been labelled as weak and unimportant, plagued by lack of trust in civic associations. Recent studies called for more nuanced approach towards civil society in non-Western context. They suggested that new empirical data and in-depth and comparative studies can elucidate actions of these actors and roles that they play in political and social processes. Researchers claimed that post-communist civil societies cannot be judged by the same standard as civil society in the Western European states and US due to the specific historical legacies, experience of multiple transitions from the autocratic Soviet rule as well as modern economic, social and political context. Studies of civil society in post-communist region have concluded that collective action in this region is `decidedly nonviolent', scholars often stress specific non-contentious repertoire of action, such as `transactional activism' developed by the local civil society actors. The present study includes in-depth description of the specific methods, strategies and dynamics of interaction that can be labelled as `non-contentious repertoire' of civic activism in post-Soviet states and results of combating electoral fraud and electoral corruption. This research project attempts to answer the question of what strategies and tactics are used by the electoral observers and which bring more successful out-comes based on the resources and political opportunities available to the NGOs. What are the internal dynamics of these organisations and traits of their development? And what strategies do they use in order to serve their local societies and international actors? Structured focused comparison helps evaluation of the outcomes beyond the success/failure dichotomy in the improvement of electoral integrity. One of the major aims of the project was to focus on NGOs themselves and voice their understanding of strategic choices and results of their activities. This task is addressed through a multi-strategy research design that combines process-tracing and comparative research design. The empirical part of the project relies predominantly on semi-structured interviews with NGO representatives collected during the fieldwork in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, and document analysis; it also utilises various secondary sources on the topics of civil society development and political processes in three countries (e.g. websites of the organisations and donors, scientific literature and official elections results). Scientific output of this project contributes to the area of civil society studies and the broader field of election quality assessment, benefiting both academics and practitioners.