| Abstract |
Since 1994, the European Union is sending missions of election observation around the globe. Even if the conditions of these missions (how, when and where they have been sent) have been largely studied, we still ignore whether they have an impact on the quality of the electoral processes and the quality of democracy in the countries observed. Based on a quantitative analysis of all the missions of election observation sent by the EU in third countries, this paper intends to evaluate the short- and long-term impact of these mission on electoral processes and democracy. This longitudinal and comparative study will rely on the indicators of V-Dem for the main dependent variables while the presence and characteristics of the EU missions (duration, number of observers, etc.) will be considered for the independent variables. The paper intends to contribute to the debate of the effectiveness of EU instruments to promote democracy in Latin America. |