2017 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN KENYA CONTEXTUALIZED ON THE CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.79.9045Keywords:
Ontology, Epistemology, Game theory, Investment theory of party competitionAbstract
ABSTRACT
This paper attempts to examine the controversy intertwined in the concept of democracy in theory and practice. It is argued that in political discourses and electoral processes in a State, the concept has been as controversial as it is from individual perspectives. In whichever situation, the proponents are convinced that they are indeed right yet they cannot all be true at the same time. After an election in a State, one set of politicians, voters and election observers will pass a verdict that the process was democratic while at the same time another set of politicians, voters and elections observers will dismiss the elections as flawed and undemocratic. In an attempt to seek answers to this controversy, the paper is divided into three parts. Part A engages in a detailed Ontological and Epistemological analysis of the views and perspectives of theorists and scholars in all historical epochs of academic development. Part B captures the case study of the 2017 presidential elections in Kenya while in Part C author attempts to contextualize the 2017 presidential elections in Kenya on the concept of democracy in an attempt to assess whether the elections were democratic or otherwise based on the researcher’s research findings of the elections. The paper combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches and is anchored on the investment theory of elections and game theory as the theoretical underpinnings. This study concludes that the 2017 presidential elections in Kenya were democratic and undemocratic at the same time.
Keywords: Ontology, Epistemology, Game theory, Investment theory of party competition.
References
Baidoo, F. L., Dankwa, S., & Eshun, I. (2018). Culture of vote buying and its implications: range of incentives and conditions politicians offer to electorates, International Journal of Developing and Emerging Economies, 6 (2), 1-20.
Best, J. W., & Kahn, J. V. (2007). Research in Education. New Delhi. Prentice Hall of India
Canare, T. A., Mendoza, R. U., & Lopez, M. A. (2018). An empirical analysis of vote buying among the poor: Evidence from elections in the Philippines, South East Asia Research, 26 (1), 58-84.
Carrier, N., & Kochore, H. H. (2014). Navigating ethnicity and electoral politics in northern Kenya: the case of the 2013 election, Journal of Eastern African Studies, 8 (1), 135-152.
Clouston, D. (2017). Japan’s 2009 and 2012 House of Representative’s elections revisited: An Investment Theory of Party Competition analysis, Electronic journal of contemporary Japanese studies, 17 (1). http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/ejcjs/vol17/iss1/index.html
Diaz-Cayeros, A., Estévez, F., & Magaloni, B. (2012). Strategies of Vote Buying: Democracy, Clientelism and Poverty Relief in Mexico. New York, NY: Cambridge.
Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of Convenience Sampling and Purposive Sampling, American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5 (1), 1-4.
Ferguson, T. (1995). Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ferree, K. E., Gibson, C. C., & Long, J. D. (2014). Voting behaviour and electoral irregularities in Kenya's 2013 Election, Journal of Eastern African Studies, 8 (1), 153-172.
Hamara, A. I. (2015). Effect of political leadership on voting behaviour in the north eastern Kenya. Research project. Nairobi. Management University of Africa.
He, B. (2006). A Survey Study of Voting Behavior and Political Participation in Zhejiang, Japanese Journal of Political Science, 7 (3) 225–250.
Heath, O., & Tillin, L. (2018). Institutional Performance and Vote Buying in India, Studies in Comparative International Development, 53 (1), 90–110.
Heywood A. 2015.Political Ideologies: An Introduction. Palgrave. New York.
Harrison, Ross. 1993. Democracy. Routledge. London.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. (2013). Elections Handbook for Security Personnel. Nairobi: IEBC.
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. (2014). Post-Election Evaluation Report on the March 4th 2013 General Elections. Nairobi: IEBC.
International Foundation for Electoral Systems (2012). Assessing Electoral Fraud in New Democracies: Refining the Vocabulary. Washington, DC: IFES.
Jungherr, A. (2016) Four Functions of Digital Tools in Election Campaigns: The German Case, The International Journal of Press/Politics, 21 (3), 358–377.
Kanyinga, K. (2014). Democracy and Political Participation. Nairobi. Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa
Karlsen, R. (2009). Campaign Communication and the Internet: Party Strategy in the 2005 Norwegian Election Campaign, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 19 (2), 183-202.
Kaushik, M., & Mathur, B. (2014). Comparative Study of K-Means and Hierarchical Clustering Techniques, International journal of software and hardware research in engineering, 2 (6), 93-98.
Klosko George. 2002. History of Political Theory: An Introduction.
Wadsworth Thomson Learning. Belmont USA.
Kramon, E., & Posner, D. N. (2011). Kenya's New Constitution, Journal of Democracy, 22 (2),
Makabila, S. (2013, January 27). IEBC at pains to crack whip on poll offenders. Retrieved 13/5/2013 from: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/m/story.php?articleID=2000075955
Manyara, J. I., Ko, R., & Ocholla, T. (2018). Ethnicity and Voter Behaviour in Presidential Elections under the New Constitution: A Case of the 2013 Elections in Kajiado County, Kenya, International Journal of Social and Development Concerns, 9 (9/12),
Masunungure, E. V. (2013). The ‘Menu of Manipulation’ and The 2013 Zimbabwe Elections: Towards explaining the ‘technical knockout, Journal of African elections, 13 (2), 94-121.
McDonald C Lee. 1962. Western Political Theory.: The Modern Age.
Harcourt, Brace and World Inc. New York.
Michira, J. N. (2014). The Language of Politics: A CDA of the 2013 Kenyan Presidential Campaign Discourse, International Journal of Education and Research, 2 (1), 1-18.
Morgan L. Michael . 1992. Classics of Moral and Political Theory. Hackett Publishing
Company. Indianapolis USA.
National Crime Research Centre (2016). Election Crimes and Offences in Kenya. Nairobi: National Crime Research Centre Election
Odoziobodo, S. I., & Banko, H. O. (2017) From Pessimism to Optimism: An Assessment of Elections Conducted in Nigeria from 1999 – 2015, The international journal of humanities & social Studies, 5 (2), 71-81.
Omar, M., & Othman, M. H. (2014). Voting Behaviour and Political Culture among Students, International Journal of Education and Social Science, 1 (4), 31-40.
Oucho, J. O. (2007). Undercurrents of Post-Election Violence in Kenya: Issues in the Long-Term Agenda. In Tensions and Reversals in Democratic Transitions: The Kenya 2007 General Elections. Nairobi: Society for International Development and Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi.
Ovwasa, L. O. (2013). Money politics and vote buying in Nigeria: the bane of good governance, Afro Asian Journal of Social Sciences, 4 (4.3), 1-19.
Parekh, M. (2017). Game theory and its application on vote trading in the United States of America, Indian Journal of Economics and Development, 5 (11), 1-4.
Perez, O. & Owens, C. (2010). The Impact of Crime and Insecurity on Political Participation and Voting Behaviour in Latin America. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, The Peabody Orlando, Orlando, Florida.
Riker, W. H. (1962). The Theory of Political Coalitions. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Saleem, N., Hanan, M. A., & Tariq, T. (2015) Political Advertisements & Voters Behaviour in 2013 General Elections of Pakistan: Exposure vs Impact Analysis, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, 52 (1), 9-26.
Sniderman, P. A. (2000). Taking Sides: A Fixed Choice theory of Political Reasoning, pp. 67-84 in Elements of Reason: Cognition, Choice, and the Bounds of Rationality. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Sniderman, P. M., & Levendusky, M. (2007). An Institutional Theory of Political Choice. In The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, ed. R. J. Dalton and H.‐D. Klingemann. New York: Oxford University Press
Wafula, J. O. (2014). Voter behaviour in general elections in Kenya, 1992-2007: Implications for the development of liberal democracy. Research project. Nairobi. Kenyatta Univ.
Winters, J. A. (2016). Electoral Dynamics in Indonesia: Money Politics, Patronage and Clientelism at the Grassroots, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 52 (3), 405-409.
Yamane, T. (1967). Statistics: An Introductory Analysis. (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: Harper and Row.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.
