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In recent years there has been increasing attention to the potentially disruptive influence of disinformation on elections. The most common forms of disinformation in elections include the dissemination of ‘fake news’ in order to discredit opponents or to influence the voting process, the falsification or manipulation of polling data, and the use of fake election monitoring and observation. This article presents an overview of the phenomenon of disinformation in elections in both democratic and undemocratic environments, and discusses measures to reduce its scope and negative impact.

The 2013–2014 Revolution in Ukraine has spurred a boom in civic anti-corruption initiatives across Ukraine. There is as yet little consolidated understanding of how effective these initiatives are and what explains variation in effectiveness. Insights from academic and practitioner literature suggest that factors associated with success in anti-corruption activism fall under three broad categories: environmental factors, advocacy strategies of civil society organizations, and their organizational characteristics. Drawing on a comprehensive study of anti-corruption activism in the regions of Ukraine, this article asks how these insights relate to anti-corruption activism in the regions of Ukraine. We find that anti-corruption initiatives generally face two key dilemmas: insufficient capacity in terms and financial and human resources, and the absence of a credible base of support. Anti-Corruption organizations that are most effective tend to be those that convincingly solve either one of these two dilemmas. In addition, we find that political will among local authorities is an important conducive factor to the effectiveness of anti-corruption activism. The article also discusses the implications of our findings for practitioners of international assistance.

One of the biggest problem in OSCE election observation methodology concerns the selection of polling stations where the observation is conducted: in practice, polling stations that are visited by observers are disproportionally urban and located in or around the national capital and in regional centers. Because visited polling stations are not representative of all polling stations, the observation mission risks getting an unbalanced picture of the shortcomings in the election. In this article, we present findings from original research that shed light on the scope of the problem of distortion in the selection of polling stations, and discuss potential ways to overcome the problem.

Flawed electoral legislation in post-Soviet states has facilitated the conduct of undemocratic elections. Many of the flaws in the election laws are not sui generis but, instead, originate from provisions in Soviet and post-communist Russian laws from which the post-Soviet legislators have borrowed. This article traces the origin and evolution of the election laws of nine post-Soviet states that have been perpetually undemocratic until at least 2010. The article demonstrates that most post-Soviet states have routinely disregarded recommendations by the OSCE and the Venice Commission directed towards the improvement of national election laws and that these laws largely continue to be shaped by Soviet and Russian legislation. In addition, the author points to the enduring impact of the Soviet legacy and the relatively hegemonic position of Russia in the region vis-à-vis the legislation of post-Soviet states, and highlights a widespread but occasionally overlooked form of institutional choice: legal borrowing (legal transplants) and adaptation. The present article also carries implications for the efforts of the OSCE and other actors to bring electoral legislation of the post-Soviet states more in line with appropriate international standards.

Election commissions that serve the partisan interests of the authorities are key to the manipulation of election processes in OSCE participating states and beyond. Despite the importance of impartial election administration, OSCE/ODIHR, in its reviews of election laws or in its reports of election observation missions, has so far declined to put forward a comprehensive view on what constitutes best practices regarding the composition and functioning of election commissions. Drawing from a comparative study of the manipulation of rules for the composition and functioning of election commissions, this article develops insights, and formulates recommendations, that could inform a more assertive ODIHR approach to the issue of partisan election commissions..

Electoral assistance by the OSCE in the undemocratic states of the post-Soviet area is faced with a number of serious challenges: there has been no improvement in the quality of elections over the past decade; recommendations by the OSCE to improve electoral legislation are routinely disregarded in most countries; and, within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the undemocratic countries have stepped up a range of alternative electoral assistance activities that replicate and in large part contradict comparable OSCE efforts. This article discusses these three challenges and considers possible changes to the practice of OSCE electoral assistance that may contribute to its continued relevance and effectiveness.

Despite a sustained effort, international assistance to political parties has failed to make a significant impact on parties in Georgia and Ukraine: political parties in these countries have remained far removed from the type of stable, democratic, and representative organisation that is commonly aimed for by party assistance. This study argues that domestic constraints on the development of stable and democratic parties have invalidated the assistance effort to such an extent that the assistance has become highly ineffectual. A large degree of volatility in party politics, reflected primarily in a high turnover rate of parties, has rendered much of the assistance provided throughout the years futile. The less-than-democratic political context in Ukraine (until 2005) and in Georgia moreover produced political parties that were inherently unsuitable to receive party assistance, because essentially they were not interested in transforming into stable democratic parties. Since the domestic constraints on par...

The December 2011 legislative election was among the most fraudulent national elections in Russia since the communist period. The fraud, however, was not evenly spread across the country. Precinct-level election returns from the 83 regions of the Russian Federation suggest that the level of fraud ranged from minimal or small in some regions to extreme in some others, with moderate to high fraud levels in many regions in between. We argue that in an electoral authoritarian context like Russia, regional variation in fraud can be explained by differences in (a) the perceived need by regional authorities to signal loyalty to the center by “delivering” desired election results; (b) the capacity of regional authorities to organize fraud; and (c) the vulnerability of citizens to political pressure and manipulation. We test the effect of signaling, capacity, and vulnerability on electoral fraud in the 2011 legislative elections with data on the 83 regions of the Russian Federation. We find evidence for all three mechanisms, finding that the tenure of governors in office, United Russia's dominance in regional legislatures, and the ethnic composition of regions are most important for explaining regional variation in electoral fraud

While international election observations missions often aim to present generalizable claims about the quality and integrity of an election, their findings are rarely based on a representative sample of observations, undermining the credibility of the missions. Bias in the selection of polling stations, among other things, can inflate or deflate the percentage of polling stations where observers find significant flaws. This article uses original data from Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) election observation missions to illustrate the nature of the problem of selection bias in international election observation, and show how the percentage of ‘bad’ polling stations (in the absence of selection bias) can be estimated through a weighting procedure. The article finds that, while there is a strong degree of selection bias, this does not significantly impact the overall percentage of ‘bad’ polling stations that is reported by OSCE observation missions.

It is widely taken for granted that international election observation deters and detects election fraud, but little evidence exists that supports this conventional wisdom. This article employs a unique dataset on the 2011 and 2012 election observation missions by the osce to the legislative and presidential elections in russia, to assess the claim that international election observation deters and detects fraud. The findings suggest that observers may have deterred fraud to some degree during the observation of counting procedures but less so, if at all, during the observation of voting procedures. , and that observers probably did not detect fraud to any significant degree during both voting and counting observations.

Sir .—In the March 1991 issue of AJDC , 1 Dr Stiehm described his experience with strict curtailment of his three daughters' TV viewing so that they would devote more time to schoolwork, reading, music, and exercise. This worked out well for his family, but it might not for others who have different interests and/or lack entertainment and learning alternatives. Television has been stigmatized as the "boob tube," yet it also provides fine educational, news, public affairs, sports, music, and general entertainment programs. One must be selective to find good books in a library and good music on the radio; this also applies to TV programs. Thus, rather than proscribe TV, parents might be better advised to review the coming weeks' TV fare, go over it with their children, and help them decide which programs of value to watch. Clearly, there is nothing wrong with children viewing "Sesame Street"; "Mister

To the Editor.— The recommendations for vaccine injury compensation published in the Dec 7 issue ofThe Journal 1 are both necessary and generally sound. All claims of injury should first be funneled through a no-fault federal compensation program. However, when the claimant finds the disposition of his claim by the program to be unsatisfactory, there probably deserves to be a limited appeals process involving petition for a rehearing or appeal to a federal court, where a contention as to fact could be heard by a judge without jury. This is most apt to be needed when a claim is turned down. In addition, health insurers should not be permitted to exclude these injuries from medical care coverage, and compensation should be limited to cases of serious injury only to the extent that a family's health insurance does not provide such coverage. Pain and suffering compensation should be excluded. In

To the Editor.— Dr Schwartz 1 in the article entitled "The Inevitable Failure of Current Cost-Containment Strategies: Why They Can Provide Only Temporary Relief" nicely provides documentary support for "Baumol's disease," a condition that has been used in the past to explain the high cost of hamburgers in New York ( Forbes , Aug 15, 1983, p 92; Forbes , Sept 15, 1977, p 166). William Baumol, an economist at New York University and Princeton (NJ) University, notes that "any service that is inherently labor-intensive will tend to rise in cost faster than the general rate of inflation." He explains that a person can provide only so many units of a labor-intensive service during a day. Since each person must eat and partake of the other basic goods and services of society, each will demand sufficient compensation to permit this. He claims that investment in capital goods, education, and technology is required to

To the Editor.— In "Do Economic Slumps Increase Illness?" (242:1241, 1979), a correlation between ischemic heart disease and economic conditions is suggested. Between 1968 and the end of 1971, the Seattle area's largest employer reduced its work force from more than 100,000 to fewer than 40,000 employees, costing the community a huge proportion of its basic industry jobs. Few communities since the Depression have experienced such severe unemployment so quickly, and many employees with 15 to 20 years' seniority were stunned to find themselves laid off and without any job prospects. Rahe et al 1 and Petrich and Holmes 2 have shown that life crises such as loss of employment are associated with illness development, yet it is surprising how little (if any) effect the Seattle-area recession had on heart disease mortality in men aged 55 to 64 years (Table). Also, in contrast to the Australia experience, coronary heart disease

To the Editor. — In his commentary "A Prescription for the Rising Cost of Medical Care" (237:2383, 1977), Vernon Mark, MD, suggests the abandonment of Medicaid in favor of a municipal, county, and state hospital system, which he feels could provide the services needed by the medically indigent more cheaply, without sacrifice in quality of services, and with less fraud. He implied that the problem of the old government hospital system related to physical facilities, not to inadequate medical care. I do not agree. Seattle-King County has had a better county hospital than most in the country. Hospital care provided there in the past and currently has technically been good, often excellent. Today it still sees many Medicaid patients as part of the medical care mainstream (as it should be). The patient has freedom of choice to the extent that the private sector is willing to participate in Medicaid. During the

To the Editor.— I concur with the general findings of King and Young (239:2674, 1978) related to prisoners and their seizure disorders. Based on my limited experience, the prevalence of prisoners receiving anticonvulsants in Seattle is undoubtedly equivalent to that in Illinois. However, two points must be recognized. There is a tendency for prisoners to be overmedicated. Many prisoners who take anticonvulsants are probably not suffering from epilepsy. They continue to receive these drugs because no one has the inclination to reassess the need for them. In this day of frequent prisoner complaints about their medical care and common lawsuits related to "violations" of prisoners' rights, the jail physician is often subjected to abuse if he tries to readjust a prisoner's medications. A high proportion (often more than half) of prisoners are alcoholics or addicts. It is my impression that most prisoners who take anticonvulsants are among this