Conference Paper / Presentation
| 2023
Preserving interventionism: how professionalisation secures the survival of electoral assistance
Presented at: 16th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, 5-9 September 2023, Potsdam (Germany)
The presentation addresses the puzzle why aid continues even when it achieves its proclaimed ends at the example of electoral assistancein Africa. It presented a story about the synergy between an aid sector and the emergence of a transnational profession. The paper argues that electoral assistance has persisted not despite but because of its success: Professionalization adds a new twist to the classical problem of aid dependency as it extends the provision of assistance beyong poor countries that lack resources and capacity to fulfil basic services.
