How to Build a Democracy - led by Lindiwe Mazibuko

WEEK TWO: 29 September 2015, “Free and Fair Elections”

Our second session looks at the principle and practice of free and fair elections in a new democracy. We consider some of the complexities of managing, campaigning in and overseeing transitional elections and consider questions such as whether elections alone may be considered a sufficient condition for democracy, and just what the expression “free and fair elections” means in practice.

Stan Greenberg will talk to us about his role advising Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) on electoral strategy and polling in South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, and then advising the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) in South Africa’s 2014 general election.

He will also draw on his extensive experience advising progressive political candidates in democracies as diverse as the United States, Venezuela, Germany and Indonesia to give us an insight into the challenges and complexities of electoral participation around the world.

Guest Speaker: Stanley Greenberg – leading Democratic polling advisor and political strategist. Senior pollster for President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and President Nelson Mandela. Chairman and CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.

Room: Faculty Dining Room, HKS

***All study groups are off-the-record and not for media coverage***