About Aarhus University
Jørgen Elklit
Professor Emeritus
Department of Political Science and Government
Bartholins Allé 7, 1331, 222
8000, Aarhus C
Denmark
E-mail: elklit@ps.au.dk
Phone: (+45) 87165583 (office, direct line) / (+45) 86545961 (residence)
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Key qualifications:
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| 1942 | Born in Frederiksværk, Denmark. Danish citizen |
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| 1970 | Graduate (history) from Aarhus University, Denmark |
| 1970-99 | Research scholar, assistant professor, and associate professor, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University |
| 1988 | Doctor of Political Science (dr.scient.pol.) Dissertation title: From Open to Secret Voting. Aspects of the Development of a Party System |
| 1993 | Democratization and electoral support advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
| 2000 | Professor of Political Science (political behaviour and political attitudes) at Aarhus University |
| 2014 | van Zyl Slabbert Visiting Professor at the Department of Political Studies, University of Cape Town |
| 2017-19 | Academic convenor of Aarhus University's yearly MatchPoints Seminar |
Awards
2004 Ten Years of Democracy Award (bestowed by the Electoral Commission of South Africa)
2012 The Erik Rasmussen Prize (bestowed by the Danish Political Science Association)
2013 Meningsmodig danske-prisen (bestowed by the FSB-organization)
2013 The Joe C. Baxter Award (bestowed by IFES, the International Foundation for Electoral System)
2014 20 Years of Electoral Democracy Award (bestowed by the Electoral Commission of South Africa)
2015 Aarhus University's BSS Faculty's Extraordinary Prize for Research Dissemination
2016 Aarhus University's Jubilee Foundation's Pris for Research Dissemination
Selected Board and Committee Memberships:
| 1993 | Member of the Goldstone Commission’s Panel Inquiring into the Curbing of Violence and Intimidation Before, During, and After the 1994 South African Elections |
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| 1994-97 | Member of the South African Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) |
| 1996-2009 | Member of the Board of Directors of the Electoral Institute for Southern Africa |
| 1997 | Chairman of the OSCE Steering Board for out-of-country voting in connection with the municipal and RS Entity Elections in Bosnia & Herzegovina |
| 1998-99 | Member of the High Representative’s International Advisory Board on a Permanent Electoral Law for Bosnia & Herzegovina |
| 2002-03 | Member of the South African "Electoral Task Team" (ETT), mandated by the SA Cabinet to formulate new legislation for national and provincial elections |
| 2006-10 | Board member: Aarhus University's Research Foundation |
| 2014-18 | Member of ExCo (executive committee) of IPSA (International Political Science Association) |
Selected Activities related to advisory work on elections and democratization, election administration, election observation abroad, democratization support etc.
| 1990-91 | On four occasions DANIDA democratization and election adviser in Nepal, assigned to the Electoral Commission in Kathmandu |
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| 1995-96 | (December/June) Member of the OSCE Election Field Assessment Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina; followed by membership of the joint ODIHR/IFES Electoral Code Working Group and the OSCE Election Advisory Group |
| 1997-98 | (June/February) Head of Consultancy Mission: Review of Tanzania’s 1995 Electoral Process |
| 2000 | (August 2000 - May 2002) International Expert Advisor to the Lesotho Independent Electoral Commission |
| 2000 | (September) Head of Danida Project Identification Team (Yunnan Province, China). Also later visits to Yunnan Province under the same project |
| 2003 | Member of the Joint IFES/Elections Canada Team travelling to Afghanistan to prepare issue papers for the planning process before the June 2004 elections |
| 2003 | (June/July) Member of a joint UNPD/Danida team preparing a draft consolidated election law for the Lesotho IEC |
| 2004 | (February) Expert advisor on the new electoral system for Afghanistan (working with IFES/Kabul and the UNMAG Electoral Unit) |
| 2008 | (April-Sept.) Secretary to the Independent Review Commission (IREC) in Kenya |
Books:
More than 20 books (including co-authored, edited, and co-edited volumes). Among these are:
Fra åben til hemmelig afstemning. Aspekter af et partisystems udvikling (From Open to Secret Voting: Aspects of the Development of a Party System), Aarhus: Politica, 1988.
Electoral Systems for Emerging Democracies: Experiences and Suggestions (edited); Copenhagen: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1997.
Partiernes medlemmer (Political Party Members), Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2003 (redigeret sammen med Lars Bille)
Gensyn med Sofavælgerne (The Abstaining Voters Revisited), Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2005 (sammen med Birgit Møller, Palle Svensson og Lise Togeby)
Challenges of Conflict, Democracy and Development in Africa, Johannesburg: EISA, 2007 (co-edited with Khabele Matlosa & Bertha Chiroro).
Duality by Design: The Iranian Electoral System, Washington DC: IFES, 2011. Lead author: Yasmin Alem, contributors: Jørgen Elklit and Mehrangiz Kar.
KV09. Analyser af kommunalvalget 2009 (Analyses of the 2009 Local Government Elections), Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, 2013 (redigeret sammen med Ulrik Kjær)
Det demokratiske system (The Democratic system (in Denmark)), København: Hans Reitzels Forlag, 4. udgave, 2016 (redigeret sammen med Jørgen Grønnegård Christensen)
KV13. Analyser af koomunalvalget 2013 (Analyses of the 2013 Local Government Elections), Odense: University of Southern Denmark, 2017 Press (co-edited with Christian Elmelund-Præstekær and Ulrik Kjær)
Valg [Elections], Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2017
Some recent articles:
(with Andrew Reynolds) "A Framework for the Systematic Study of Election Quality", Democratization, 12: 2 (2005), pp. 147-162.
(with Stig Thøgersen & Dong Lisheng) “Consultative Elections of Chinese Township Leaders: The Case of an Experiment in Ya’an, Sichuan”, China Information, 22: 1 (2008).
“The 2007 General Election in Lesotho: Abuse of the MMP System?”, Journal of African Elections, 7: 1 (June 2008), pp. 10-19.
(with Ulrik Kjær) “Split-ticket Voting in Times of Sub-national Government Reorganisation: Evidence from Denmark, Scandinavian Political Studies, 32: 4 (2009), pp. 422-439.
(with Ulrik Kjær) "Party politicisation of local councils: Cultural or institutional explanations for trends in Denmark, 1966-2005", European Journal of Political Research, 49 (2010), pp. 337-358.
(with Ulrik Kjær) "Local Party System Nationalisation: Does Municipal Size Matter?", Local Government Studies, 36:3 (2010), pp. 425-444.
"The Role of International Organisations During Electoral Crises: The Case of Kenya 2007-08", Representation, 47:4 (November 2011), pp. 399-415.
(with Ulrik Kjær) "The Impact of Assembly Size on Representativeness", The Journal of Legislative Studies, 20:2 (2014), pp. 156-173.
(with Frederick O. Wanyama, Bodil Folke Frederiksen and Preben Kaarsholm) "Ethnicity and/or Issues? The 2013 General Elections in Western Kenya", Journal of African Elections, 13: 3 (October 2014), pp. 169-195.
"Hvad nu, Sydafrika?" (What now, South Africa?), udenrigs, 2015:1, pp. 74-83.
(with Jens Blom-Hansen, Søren Serritzlew, Louise Riis Villadsen) "Ballot position and election results: Evidence from a natural experiment", Electoral Studies, 44 (December 2016), pp. 172-183.
(With Fred O. Wanyama) "Electoral violence duringe party primaries in Kenya", Democratization 2018. Published online January 31, 2018.
My articles have appeared in the following professional journals:
Editorial Activities
Editorial board memberships: Politica (1978-1998), International Review of Political Science, Journal of African Elections, Zeitschrift für vergleichende Politikwissenschaft
Co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Danish Politics (in preparation)
Referee activities for a number of avcademic journals