Electoral Fraud and Revolutionary Elections

This chapter takes stock of the case studies examined in Part II of the Handbook, by focusing on the forms of electoral malpractice depicted in the different chapters and on the role these tricks played in turning some elections into revolutionary affairs. The authors pay special attention to the politics behind the perpetration and denunciation of fraud and to the consequences for post-electoral stability. This chapter explores types of contrasting experiences. Under what conditions did regime elites and their supporters engage in fraudulent electoral practices? Why was fraud prevalent in some contexts, whereas in others it was virtually nonexistent? Under what conditions did fraud become a relevant axis of post-electoral conflict? Under what conditions did stolen elections lead to revolution? The chapter turns to the political science literature on the dynamics and consequences of electoral fraud to shed light on these historical questions. The goal is to derive lessons from studies of contemporary politics to help interpret the variation observed in the extent and implications of fraud in some of the nineteenth-century elections included in this volume.