This paper analyzes the relationship between substantive voting rights (SVRs) and electoral management bodies (EMBs). Since the Third Wave of democratization, electoral management has become a salient issueboth in developing and developed countries. We now witness many attempts, regardless of the level of development of a country, to improve electoral management. Two major directions are identifiable in this regard. The first approach involves making EMBs more independent from the executive branch. The secondapproach involves ensuring voting rights more substantively. These trends stem from a deep-rooted problem of worsening electoral performance evident in lower turnouts and eroding electoral credibility. This is an issue that, in extreme cases, can uproot the very foundation of democracy. However, despite widespread awareness of these problems, up to now there has been virtually no debate on the relations between SVRs and EMBs in political science. This paper utilizes the dataset in Massicotte et al.’s studyand provides a preliminary analysis of the relationship between EMBs and SVRs. 〈特集3 制度の比較に基づく選挙研究〉 Electoral Management Bodies and Electoral Governance(1)
