ABSTRACT
Overview of international election standards After the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, the norm of periodic and genuinely democratic elections has spread around the world. Many governments may fail to live up to the norm, but their behaviour is still judged against it. Increasingly, governments are not considered internationally fully legitimate if they have not been elected through democratic elections. International actors often actively promote the principle of free and fair elections because it is seen as an important step in democratization and socialization to human rights norms. The general acceptance of the international norm of free elections is demonstrated by the widespread practice of election observation: international and domestic observers on the ground monitor how the elections are conducted and whether they meet international standards.1
