Straus FEllow
Academic Year 2012-2013
Ellen Lust
Ellen Lust is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. She received a PhD in Political Science and an MA in Middle East Studies at the University of Michigan. Her books include Structuring Conflict in the Arab World (Cambridge University Press, 2005); Political Participation in the Middle East (Lynne Rienner Press, 2008), co-edited with Saloua Zerhouni; The Middle East, an edited textbook (CQ Press, 2010), and Governing Africa's Changing Societies (Lynne Rienner Press, 2012), co-edited with Stephen Ndegwa. She has also published articles in such journals as Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, International Journal of Middle East Studies and Politics and Society. Her work broadly examines political participation in authoritarian regimes, and through this, the prospects for development and democracy. She is currently working on a book manuscript examining how social and political incentives drive political participation, focusing on elections in the Arab world. She is also an associate editor Middle East Law and Governance, sponsored by the University of Toronto and Yale University Law Schools. Ellen Lust has studied, conducted research, and led student and alumni groups in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Israel, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia.
Research
I will spend my year at the Straus Institute exploring how societal organization influences elections, and consequently, the potential for and nature of democracy. Societies are not "created" equally. Some are tightly knit and densely connected, and others atomized and individualistic; some are hierarchically organized, and others flat. We often think of whole countries as having a single "culture" (e.g., 'tribal' Jordan, Libya, or Yemen, vs. 'non-tribal' Tunisia or Egypt.) Yet, in reality, societal organization varies significantly both across countries, and sub-nationally within them. My project will explore this variation in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, and examine how it affects voting behavior and outcomes.
The project diverges from conventional views of elections in two important ways. First, rather than view elections uniformly as one-to-one exchanges of votes for goods (whether present or future, policies or material incentives) between citizens and candidates, but in some cases, I argue, they are driven by long-term, often mutual, communal social obligations. Second, rather than view political institutions as the prime driver of electoral behavior and outcomes, I see societal organization (and the often informal institutions underpinning it) as equally important in shaping electoral behavior and outcomes.
This account challenges our understanding of elections. First, it reframes the commitment problem. Instead of candidates trying to ensure that citizens once paid will deliver their votes, we find voters seeking to ensure that candidates who would distribute benefits will be elected. Second, it prompts rethinking many activities perceived as "vote-buying" (e.g., distributing goods, hosting dinners, etc.). Rather than acts intended to purchase individuals' votes, they may be better understood as demonstrations of commitment to community, in keeping with cultural expectations of social order and generosity. Finally, it suggests that policymakers need to rethink electoral assistance programs. If differences in the ways societies are organized means that voters and candidates, quite rationally, behave differently, then well-honed, one-size-fits-all technical programs that assume elections should be the same, whether in Switzerland or the Sudan, Upper or Lower Egypt should be reconsidered.
