‘How to Rig an Election’ online book discussion slated Feb. 18
The Lewes Public Library will host a live, online discussion of Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas’s 2018 book, “How to Rig an Election,” at 5 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 18, via Zoom.
Cheeseman will join the first part of the conversation that evening from Malawi. Advance questions may be emailed to lewes.library@gmail.com.
In “How to Rig an Election,” Cheeseman and Klaas assert that while more elections are being held than ever before, the world is becoming less democratic. Using information collected from more than 500 interviews in 11 countries and data from global elections spanning 60 years, the authors lay out how gerrymandering, vote buying, repression, hacking and ballot-box stuffing are used by autocrats to rig elections and what can be done to protect democracies.
The conversation will engage participants in discussing the specific findings presented in the book, as well as general commentary on the state of global democracy.
The event is free and open to the public and registration is required; go to www.lewes.lib.de.us and the Virtual Programs for Adults page. A free copy of the book will be provided to the first 15 local registrants. Books must be picked up at the Lewes library. More copies will be available for checking out as well.
Leading the conversation will be Justin Collier, a PhD candidate in the department of political science and international relations at the University of Delaware. Collier’s areas of expertise include public diplomacy, nationalism, national identity and ethnic conflict. Presented in partnership with Delaware Humanities, this program is sponsored by the Why It Matters initiative, administered by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Cheeseman is professor of democracy at the University of Birmingham in England and was formerly director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford University. He is the author or editor of 10 books, including “Democracy in Africa” and “Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective.”
