ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a hypothesis that electoral monitoring activities by appropriate nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) achieve three things. They are as follows: They contribute to the international legitimacy of governments; they represent a cost-effective means of promoting electoral democracy; and they promote human rights in authoritarian or semiauthoritarian countries. The chapter tests this hypothesis in the cases of Nicaragua and Guyana. These case studies demonstrate the enormously important and cost-effective role of employing NGOs and IGOs to monitor crucial elections in authoritarian or semiauthoritarian systems and thereby to displace regimes by ballots rather than by bullets. In both Nicaragua and Guyana there are now opportunities to install liberal democracy with free and open elections that involve the participation of a courageous electorate. However, both Nicaragua and Guyana must internalize their own long-term democratization and development options.
