NETWORK APPROACH AND THE STUDY OF ELECTORAL GOVERNANCE AT THE SUPRANATIONAL LEVEL: THE CASE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
N. V. Grishin 

Abstract. The paper describes the methodology of network analysis on its preliminary stage in a comparatively new subject area which studies how international community participates in electoral governance, and contains the results of the analysis. It is revealed that out of 5 types of governance networks of electoral management worked out by Tony James, there is only one that can satisfy the requirements of the international scale of electoral governance, namely, a pluralistic collaborative network. Using network approach in the interpretation of electoral governance at the supranational level not only allows researchers to acquire new knowledge in this subject area but also turns into its own challenge. The main advantage of using the network approach in this field of knowledge is its ability to compensate for the limitations of the inductive methodology when unstable objects with a low degree of institutionalization are under study. The methodology of network analysis works differently in considering the system of supranational electoral governance in Europe as a whole and its elements (actors), in particular. The personal networks of actors participating in supranational electoral gover-nance are described in full measure with the help of network analysis language. But the system of supranational electoral governance in Europe cannot be regarded as a full network due to some specific features of its typology. The community of supranational actors of electoral gov-ernance in Europe is an object of a special kind of complexity, whose unity is ensured not by the links between the elements but by the common tasks of developing the institution of elec-tions, the shared values and the common object of controlling influence, which is the electoral governance at the national level.

Keywords: electoral management, electoral governance, elections, European Union.
DOI: 10.31429/26190567-20-2-6-15