Katja Lindskov Jacobsen publishes new article on biometric voter registration

In a new article, Biometric voter registration: A new modality of democracy assistance? published in Cooperation & Conflict, Senior Researcher Katja Lindskov Jacobsen analyses the roll-out of biometric voter registration across Africa and its effect on democracy promotion.

A new approach

Focusing on the use of biometric voter registration (BVR) in the Kenyan elections, Katja Lindskov Jacobsen, investigates how this can be seen as a new and lighter approach to democracy promotion. The article argues that with the roll-out of biometric voter registration we are seeing the contours of a modality, which places greater emphasis on the use of technocratic strategies to resolve complex political challenges. The article also looks critically on the consequences of BVR. Among these is the reinforcement of unequal global power structures, for example by constituting an increasing number of African states as laboratories for the trailing of a technology, which, due to fears of hacking has been rolled back in the US.

Read the full article here.