Popular, competitive elections are a component of the democratic process, but they alone do not constitute a democracy. The first somewhat competitive election in the Soviet Union in 1989 marked the beginning of a trend toward political liberalization & democracy. Since then the Russians have voted for their chosen candidates many times, although only a small percentage of the adult population participates. The elections, on all levels, have been held as prescribed by law, though the first founding election for a new political system under a new constitution did not take place until December 1993. The campaigns & outcomes of the Gorbachev, Yeltsin, & (the first) Putin elections, & the corresponding parliamentary elections, are described. Under Putin, the elections still perform a quasi-democratic function, but they are now controlled by state institutions that have the ability to falsify the outcomes in favor of Putin-supported incumbents. J. Stanton

This article examines the influences on the 2008 presidential election that led to the election of Barack Obama. There were many reasons why observers expected 2008 to be a strong year for the Democrats. The poor retrospective evaluations of the Bush presidency were thought to be too much of a burden for any Republican presidential candidate to bear successfully. On the other hand, open seat elections have been historically close, in part because successor candidates receive neither the full credit nor the full blame of incumbents. Moreover, in a period of partisan parity and ideological polarization, tight contests are to be expected. Add to these factors the fact that neither party’s nominee faced an easy time winning his party’s nomination and the fact that McCain was unusually moderate for a Republican presidential candidate and Obama was a northern liberal as well as the first African-American presidential candidate of a major party and there was every reason to suspect a closely decided election. That was the way that the election was shaping up in the polls until the Wall Street meltdown hit in mid-September. It was the “game changer ” that tipped the election to Obama.

Deals with UN protectorate in Kosovo; UNMIK (UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo) peacekeeping forces, relations with Yugoslavia/Serbia, and ethnic politics, with emphasis on role of elections.

The 2007 Australian Federal election not only saw the election of a Labor government after 11 years of John Howard’s conservative Coalition government. It also saw new levels of political engagement through the Internet, including the rise of citizen journalism as an alternative outlet and mode of reporting on the election. This paper reports on the Youdecide 2007 project, an initiative undertaken by a QUT-based research team to facilitate online news reporting on the election on a ‘hyper-local’, electorate-based model. We evaluate the Youdecide initiative on the basis of: promoting greater citizen participation in Australian politics; new ways of engaging citizens and key stakeholders in policy deliberation; establishing new links between mainstream media and independent online media; and broadening the base of political

Elections, John C. Courtney, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004, pp.
ix, 201.The expansion of the number of democratic regimes around the world and
the decline of trust in government in established democracies have renewed
interest in election laws and how these rules define the national
community, allow citizens to express their preferences, and influence the
composition of legislatures. In Canada, the study of electoral laws has
frequently dealt with how electoral formulae translate votes into
legislative representation.