Citizens' Participation in Electoral Governance: A Redistricting Process

Abstract

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Citizens’ participation in electoral governance can be considered as a means for insuring electoral integrity. Some cases and problems of this participation are discussed in contemporary literature. Less attention has been paid to institutional forms of citizens’ participation in electoral redistricting. The paper presents a systematic picture to fill this gap, it also reveals the prospects of citizens’ participation in this area of electoral governance. Methodological framework for the study is contemporary theory of citizens’ participation and the S. Arnstein`s “ladder” of citizens’ participation. Making cross-case generalisations, the paper addresses the empirical material from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, Great Britain, the USA and Russia. It is conceivable that the adequate time frame for citizens’ participation and transparency are the most significant conditions for citizens` engagement.

Keywords

• citizens’ participation
• ladder of citizen participation
• delimitation of constituencies
• redistricting
• electoral management
• electoral governance
• electoral authorities
• electoral integrity
• constituencies
• elections
• electoral systems