| Abstract: | The purpose of this investigation into local elections in developing and transitional countries is to highlight typical challenges to the management of local elections, emphasizing the difficulties that appear to be peculiar to local as opposed to national elections; and help explain why they often turn out to be more difficult to manage than national elections, are of less interest to the public, and often less satisfactory in outcome. It gives attention first to differentiating between categories of subnational elections, and then deals with a number of problems faced in local elections. These are size, scale and complexity of managing such elections, lack of public interest, potential for local manipulation, challenges to fair or adequate media coverage and campaign finance arrangements. The article sets out to challenge simplification and optimism about local elections in developing and transitional societies. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
