Yanina Welp & Laurence Whitehead 
The Politics of Recall Elections [PDF ebook] 

This edited volume presents the first comprehensive analysis of recall processes which have spread globally since the end of the Cold War, and which are now re-configuring the political dynamics of electoral democracy. Drawing on the expertise of country experts, the book provides a coherent and theoretically informed framework for mapping and evaluating this fast-evolving phenomenon. While the existing literature on the subject has so far focused on isolated single-country studies, the collection brings recall experiments to centre stage as it relates them to current crises in the traditional variants of representative democracy. It explains why the spread of recall innovations is set to continue, and to pass a threshold from inattention to urgent engagement. The authors further provide original insights into the rationale for recall, as well as guidance on minimising the accompanying risks.

Innehållsförteckning

Chapter 1: The Politics of Recall Elections (Yanina Welp, Laurence Whitehead).- Chapter 2: Recall: Democratic Advance, Safety Valve, or Risky Adventure? (Yanina Welp, Laurence Whitehead).- Chapter 3: The Political Theory of the Recall. A Study in the History of the Ideas (Matt Qvortrup).- Chapter 4: The debate on the recall in France: imperative mandate or political irresponsibility under the Fifth Republic? (Clara Egger, Raul Magni-Berton).- Chapter 5: Recall Elections in the US: Its Long Past and Uncertain Future (Joshua Spivak).- Chapter 6: Recall in Japan as a Measure of Vertical Accountability (Mitsuhiko Okamoto, Uwe Serdült).- Chapter 7: Explaining institutional change towards recall in Germany (Brigitte Geißel, Stefan Jung).- Chapter 8: Recall Referendums in Central and Eastern Europe: From Citizen Accountability to Partisan Account Settling (Sergiu Mișcoiu).- Chapter 9: The recall revival and its mixed implications for democracy: Evidence from Latin America (Yanina Welp, Laurence Whitehead).- Chapter 10: Reselection and Deselection in the Political Party (Jonathan White, Lea Ypi).- Chapter 11: Narratives of Executive Downfall: Recall, Impeachment, or Coup? (Aníbal Pérez-Liñán).- Chapter 12: On Reconciling Recall with Representation (Laurence Whitehead).

Om författaren

Yanina Welp is Associate Researcher in the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy, Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland. Her main areas of study are the introduction and practices of mechanisms of direct and participatory democracy, and digital media and politics. She has published extensively on these topics in academic journals such as
International Political Science Review,
Democratization and
Revista Española de Ciencia Política and books.





Laurence Whitehead is Senior Research Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, UK, and editor of the
Oxford Studies in Democratisation series. His publications include the books
Democratisation: Theory and Experience (2002), and
Let the People Rule? Direct Democracy in the Twenty-First Century (with Y. Welp, 2017), as well as the article ’Recall of Elected Officeholders: The Growing Incidence of a Venerable, but Overlooked, Democratic Institution’ published in
Democratization (October 2018).