Center for the Study of Democracy

Emerging democracies may go through a sequence of positive and negative attitudes toward foreign advice on electoral systems. My experience in Estonia makes me propose such a sequence, to see from the roundtable responses whether it has any generality. Based on a sample of one, the framework most likely will not hold, but reactions to it may help to map the field. Indirectly, I will touch on the touchy issue of whether the foreign advisors have failed to give adequate advice or whether local politicians have failed to take sound advice. Of course, it is neither and both, to some degree, plus honest misunderstandings. I will examine to what extent our systematic and analytical knowledge of electoral systems enables Western political scientists to offer advice to emerging democracies, and my conclusions are rather modest. I will briefly digress from impact of political science advice for emerging democracies to the latter's impact on political science discourse, focusing on Duverger's rule.