Electoral Reform - Nation-building

Nation-building

In less democratic countries, elections are often demanded by dissidents; therefore the most basic electoral reform project such countries is to achieve a transfer of power to a democratically elected government with a minimum of bloodshed, e.g. in South Africa in 1994. This case highlights the complexity of such reform: such projects tend to require changes to national or other constitutions, and to alter balances of power. Electoral reforms are often politically painful.