Trusting e-voting amid experiences of electoral malpractice: the case of Indian elections

Avgerou, Chrisanthi ORCID: 0000-0002-8814-453X, Masiero, Silvia and Poulymenakou, Angeliki (2019) Trusting e-voting amid experiences of electoral malpractice: the case of Indian elections. Journal of Information Technology, 34 (3). pp. 263-289. ISSN 0268-3962

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Abstract

This article constructs explanatory theory on trust in e-voting, a term that refers to the use of stand-alone IT artefacts in voting stations. We study e-voting as a techno-organisational arrangement embedded in the process of elections and the broader socio-economic context of a country. Following a critical realist approach, we apply retroduction and retrodiction principles to build theory by complementing existing studies of e-voting with insights from an in-depth case study of elections in India. First, we seek evidence of trust in e-voting in the responses of the public to the announcement of election results. Then we derive the following four mechanisms of trust creation or loss: the association of e-voting with the production of positive democratic effects; the making of e-voting part of the mission and identity of electoral authorities; the cultivation of a positive public attitude to IT with policies for IT-driven socio-economic development; and, in countries with turbulent political cultures, a clear distinction between the experience of voting as orderly and experiences of malpractice in other election tasks. We suggest that these mechanisms explain the different experience with e-voting of different countries. Attention to them helps in assessing the potential of electoral technologies in countries that are currently adopting them, especially fragile democracies embarking upon e-voting.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2019 Association for Information Technology Trust
Divisions:	Management
Subjects:	J Political Science > JQ Political institutions Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific
Date Deposited:	27 Mar 2019 11:57
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 05:31
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/100338

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