International Institute For Democracy And Electoral Assistance Research Articles

Domestication and Foreignization Translation Strategies Used in Nepali Constitution

This research examines the domestication and foreignization translation strategies used in the Constitution of Nepal 2015 analyzing official and unofficial translations of the constitution. How these translation strategies have been used to convey the source language (SL) message to the target language (TL) readers despite the linguistic and cultural differences is searched. The corporate author’s official translation of the Law Book Management Board (LBMB) and the unofficial translation by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) have been used to collect, analyze, and interpret data. Venuti’s translation theory of domestication and foreignization is used for the theoretical framework. The objective of this research is to find the effectiveness of these two strategies for the translation of the Nepali constitution. This research finds both the domestication and the foreignization translation strategies have been used in parallel for the translation of the Constitution of Nepal 2015. It concludes that using both strategies simultaneously as complements of one another increases the comprehensibility of the translation.

The Global Dataset on Turnout (GD-Turnout)

In this research note, we introduce the Global Dataset on Turnout (GD-Turnout), which includes information on 3217 elections for 190 countries from 1945 to 2020. GD-Turnout is benchmarked to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) dataset on elections, the current most popular voter turnout dataset. The novel GD-Turnout dataset specifically defines its unit of analysis for countries, includes 675 more elections than IDEA, and all of IDEA's rounds, where information was available. GD-Turnout employed a transparent, two-phase data-gathering process, including new, previously unconsidered information about each election. To our knowledge, it is the most comprehensive voter turnout dataset and is freely available at Harvard's Dataverse, offering a new source for voting and elections research.

COVID-19 pandemic: A wake-up call at science-policy-society to work towards a livable future

The year 2021 is nearing its end when the online version of the journal MASKANA 12(2) is published. 2021, means that already one-fifth of the 21st century has passed. Since 2000 raised the world population from 6.1 to 7.9 billion, or 29.5%. Different models predict that the world population in 2030, the year that the world leaders in Glasgow (UK) during the GOP26 meeting agreed to limit global warming to 1.5°C, will increase to 8.5 billion. Wonder if the world possesses the capacity to secure food, given the continuing exponential growth of the population, and at the same time will be able to limit the warming up of the planet by 1.5°C? According to the yearly study of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) on the state of food security increased the number of people experiencing undernourishment since 2014, and today the world experiences an unprecedented setback in its hunger eradication effort. The major drivers behind the decline in food security and nutrition are according to FAO: conflict, climate variability and extremes, and economic slowdowns and downturns. The impacts the people experience are exacerbated by the levels of inequality in terms of income, productive capacity, assets, technology, education and health. The COVID-19 pandemic has been an additional factor that put the world off track to ending world hunger, malnutrition, climate change, immigration, that the rich are getting richer, and the poor are becoming poorer, among other phenomena of inequality. Parallel to these evolutions, democracy worldwide is in decline. According to IDEA (International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), is the trend of democratic erosion ongoing since 2006 and is today worse than ever before.

Electoral Management in the Western Balkans – Overview of Institutional Setting

Countries of the Western Balkans (WB) – former federal units of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Albania have undergone a lengthy and complex process of democratisation from late 1980s. Free and fair elections are among the cornerstones of democratic consolidation. Even though the institutional setting for electoral management differs greatly across the globe, during the Europeanisation process it was widely recommended to transitional societies to set up independent electoral management bodies in other to guarantee fair electoral conditions, with standards mostly promoted by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe (VC) and International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). Based on this influence, all the countries of the WB have established electoral commissions that are to great extent formally independent from the executive, with the intention of being less prone to electoral meddling. This is enhanced by regular election monitoring in the region by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the process being followed and evaluated by both the European Union institutions and member states as part of fulfilment of the Copenhagen criteria to join the EU. This paper gives an overview of the institutional setting of electoral management in the WB that was created following the model of independent bodies and outlines main features of their design.

The Regulation of Political Finance and Corruption

Abstract Using the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) database on political finance regulations for 82 countries, we found that a contribution limits index increased corruption, after controlling for a standard list of explanatory variables. This result remains consistent employing an array of robustness checks intended to minimize the risk of a bias due to potential reverse causality and endogeneity. In contrast, the level of perceived corruption is lower in countries with higher indices of public funding and transparency requirements but these effects are rarely significant. Interestingly, we show that the mix of more generous public funding and less stringent regulations of private contributions is associated with lower corruption.

The Kenya SAREAT international IDEA democracy workshop

The report of the Nairobi workshop on 22 June 2000 which follows forms part of a pilot project of democracy assessments conducted under the auspices of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm, and its Director of applied research, Dr. Patrick Molutsi. The purpose of these country assessments is to answer such questions as 'How democratic are we? How much progress have we made? Which are the issues that give the most cause for public concern, from a democratic point of view? The assessment framework being used has been developed through a process of widespread international consultation, and builds on a methodology that was first used for the Democratic Audit of the UK. The assessment criteria are derived in the first instance from basic democratic values, such as equality, participation, representativeness, accountability, solidarity, and only secondarily from the institutional arrangements through which these values are to a greater or lesser extent realised. Although the assessment framework provides a common instrument for use in any country, it treats democracy as a comparative matter - of more or less -and allows the in-country assessors to define for themselves what the appropriate standards or comparators for assessment should be, as well as how the assessment should be compiled and presented.

Support for Democratic Development

This decade has seen a global wave of democratization -- or at least attempts at it -- on an unprecedented scale. In some parts of the world, the trend is rooted in the decay or fall of communism; elsewhere, nations are evolving from single-party to multi-party states because of related or other factors. Canada supports the process of democratization as one element of a foreign policy concerned with peace-building, human rights, and security. Assistance in organizing and conducting elections is just one form this support has taken.Free and fair elections often constitute one of the first steps in the democratization process. When the means by which the people can express their collective will freely and regularly on the basis of universal, equal, and secret suffrage is absent, no government can pretend to have the legitimacy required to exercise the powers of a democratic state.This principle is embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (whose 50th anniversary is being celebrated this year) and elaborated in the 1996 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966. Article 21 of the Universal Declaration states that 'Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives... The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.'International consensus about what constitutes free and fair democratic elections has formed around at least three principles: participation, fairness, and transparency. Determining whether these principles have been implemented requires a comprehensive understanding of all elements of a country's electoral processes -- from its electoral legislation to the production of voting results. Considering whether an election has been 'free,' for example, involves looking at whether human and democratic rights have been respected; whether electors have enjoyed freedom of speech and assembly, including the freedom to stand as candidates, to form political parties, and to disseminate and receive political messages; and freedom to register as electors and to cast ballots without fear of intimidation or reprisal.The conditions for a 'fair' election include constitutional and legal protections for universal suffrage; a secret ballot; and the right to vote, to be a candidate, and to form a political party. Fairness also requires a level playing field for candidates and parties contesting an election: equitable treatment under the law and by election administrators and access to the media and to the financial resources needed to conduct a campaign. Rules and procedures governing election administration such as registering electors and parties, counting votes, compiling election results, and resolving disputes -- must also be open and transparent and administered by an impartial authority removed from undue political interference or influence.Several international organizations to which Canada belongs have adopted these or similar principles, along with standards for ethical and professional election administration. They include the Commonwealth, the Organization of American States, the United Nations Development Programme, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA).The international community, through these and other organizations, has adopted two general approaches to implement the principles: support for the development of rules and institutions and monitoring elections to determine whether principles have been applied in practice. Election monitoring involves examining systems, procedures, and activities before, during, and after an election to see whether standards have been adhered to in all parts of the electoral cycle. The existence of democratic elections is not demonstrated by a one-time event but by a series of conditions and events that, taken together and continuing over time, indicate the presence of a free and fair electoral system. …