Perceived Quality of Elections in Autocratic Regimes and Polarized Societies

Studies dealing with the perceived quality of elections often focus on countries in which the electoral integrity can be criticized because, for example, shadow candidates are put forward or campaign financing is corrupt. These studies highlight the errors in the conduct of the election and their consequences for the stability of the political system, or address the question of why people vote at all under these corrupt conditions and what consequences this has for the legitimacy of the election. Nevertheless, traditional surveys are only suitable for addressing this question to a limited extent. However, a similar problem also exists in highly polarized democratic systems in which people are less likely to trust traditional surveys and in which the social mood is politically heated. It is therefore conceivable that the assessment of electoral integrity is also misjudged in democratic systems these days. This can be seen symptomatically in the decreasing voter turnout, the declining trust in politics and the increase in conventional protest and civil disobedience in European countries such, for example, France and Great Britain. We observed that the 2024 European Parliament elections were used to punish the national governments, with the result that early parliamentary elections were held in France in 2024 with a sensational run-off election, from which the Rassemblement National did not emerge victorious, but stronger. In the UK, the Labour Party benefited from the poor political mood in the country in the regular general election, resulting in a change of government. Based on these developments, the panel will address questions about the quality of elections in autocratic regimes and polarized societies and how they are perceived by the voter. In particular, regarding the legitimacy of political decisions, election results and correlating factors. Qualitative or quantitative approaches are welcome, these can be case studies or comparative studies.