Simple question, complex answer.

The Caucasus Research Resources Center, with whom I met on my recent trip to Georgia, starts to get to the heart of the matter in this very good post on how to evaluate pre-election polls. To boil Hans’ argument down, the burden on is on the pollster to publicly disclose as much information about the data collection process as possible. Of course, the media has to also report the results responsibly, which is almost as big a hurdle in these countries as disclosing basic information about sample sizes, margin of error, interviewing techniques and, most importantly, funders.

This sort of disclosure is necessary anywhere, whether it’s Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia (Onnik at the Armenia Election Monitor has been posting on this topic quite a bit lately) or even Iowa. That’s why Pollster.com has been a strong proponent of The Disclosure Project, which pressures U.S. pollsters to reveal more about their methodology. This is even more important in countries where pre-election opinion polls are relatively new and neither the media nor voters are very sophisticated poll consumers.

Conducting methodologically sound polling in a highly politicized environment like Georgia or Azerbajian is difficult, but not impossible (and I do put Georgia and Azerbaijan in the same category in that regard– I was shocked at how polarized the pre-election environment is in Tbilisi. The pre-election atmosphere in Georgia has much more in common with Azerbaijan’s prior to the 2005 election than it does with Ukraine’s 2006 or 2007 pre-election period, which is depressing). Just like in campaign finance, disclosure is the the first and most important step to increasing public confidence in the process.

People need to understand that polling is neither good nor bad. It’s simply a tool that can be put to both legitimate and nefarious purposes. Polls are fundamentally democratic because they give ordinary people a voice, but disclosure helps an informed citizenry assess whether their voices are truly being heard or are being manipulated.

Take a look at this map by Le Monde Diplomatique, via Intellibriefs.

Did you like Russia’s election? Get used to that model because many of the same strategies and tactics will be used by Azerbaijan’s ruling party (YAP) in the October 2008 Presidential election. I doubt, however, that Ilham Aliyev will be satisfied with Unified Russia’s 64%.

Radio Free Europe wrote about five myths about the Russian election last week. Because the myths are the same, it provides an excellent platform to discuss the Azerbaijan election.

(more…)

In October, I traveled to Kabul on behalf of Charney Research in New York to oversee the pre-tests and interviewer training for a nationwide survey conducted on behalf of ABC news, BBC News and ARD of Germany.

The results, which were released today, are interesting for a number of reasons– particularly the wealth of tracking data from 2006 (a project for which I also traveled to Kabul for pre-tests and trainings) and 2005. As the ABC story (which is more insightful than the BBC’s) emphasizes, Afghans are increasingly critical of US efforts, with only 42% positive, down from 57% in 2006. More than half (53%) disapprove of the job the US is doing. It’s important to note, however, that the presence of US troops isn’t what is drawing Afghans’ ire (71% support their presence), it’s their performance. Civilian deaths, especially in the Southwest, understandably, turn Afghans away from US and NATO forces. This is an important finding with implications for US policy there.
(more…)

I’m a little tired of “colored revolution” talk, mostly because what we’ve learned lately from Georgia and Ukraine is that getting rid of a bad government is the easy part; figuring out ways to institutionalize democratic governance is much, much harder.

There’s not a lot of good news coming out of either country. Saakashvili has revealed himself to be the garden-variety post-Soviet tyrant that many already believed he was and the Ukrainians just this week forming a ruling coalition two months after the election.

So, when talk starts about a “Saffron Revolution” in Iran starts, I roll my eyes a bit. Be careful for what you wish for.
(more…)

(My bad. I have made a Thanksgiving resolution to post more frequently. I have a post on the Azerbaijan presidential coronation in my head. Seriously.)

We have a great deal of respect around these parts for the writings of Mustafa Akyol. This piece he wrote in the American Interest magazine (only in PDF for non-subscribers) about the evolution of democracy in Turkey is excellent.