Week 4: New Projects with an Old Touch
Hi everyone!
Welcome back to Week 4 of my blog from Stockholm! This week brought an exciting new assignment: I’ve been brought on to assist with a project called the Global Network for Securing Electoral Integrity (GNSEI) — and, even more excitingly, I’ve reconnected with former colleagues from IFES. The network brings together stakeholders, NGOs, and IGOs from around the world to address some of the most pressing challenges facing democracy today.
Much of GNSEI’s current focus involves identifying strategies to counter democratic backsliding, rising public apathy, and declining trust in electoral outcomes. It’s rewarding to contribute, even in a small way, to the conversations the Network is having.
I’ve also started working on a project that feels a bit more personal: direct democracy. Right now, IDEA is collaborating with election stakeholders in certain countries to review how referenda are designed and conducted in democracies around the world. My role involves researching procedures outlined in national constitutions and legal codes, and compiling examples to help develop a “best practices” resource for use by electoral management bodies.
This topic has been close to me since undergrad. At William & Mary, I was part of a direct democracy research initiative during my senior year. While the COVID-19 pandemic ultimately canceled our plans to hold a deliberative forum, the project left a lasting impression on me. Exploring how citizens engage directly with governance is something I continue to find fascinating — and it’s exciting to now approach that same subject from an international legal perspective. Shameless plug for our research here.
The office has been relatively quiet this week. Summer is a popular vacation season in Sweden, so it’s mostly been just my intern coordinator Julian, my fellow intern Cianna, and me holding things down. The benefit is that the coffee machine remains unguarded, but I've already begun to grow close with some of the other team members — individuals from Italy, Nigeria, Austria, Sweden, and more.
We’ve kept up a nice tradition on Mondays: lunch outings with the Electoral Processes team. Lately, that’s meant walking through Stockholm’s Gamla stan (Old Town) to try something new. Stockholm is compact and easy to navigate, and our office sits right in the middle of much of the city’s political and legal core. Some mornings I’m drinking coffee near the Prime Minister’s residence; other afternoons I’m walking past the national court with a pastry in hand.
For a capital city — and a major economic hub — Stockholm is surprisingly quiet. Not silent, just more subdued than most cities I’ve lived in before. There’s a calm to it that’s difficult to describe but easy to notice. I’ve grown to appreciate the pace, along with the frighteningly accurate metro (which I have finally learned to time correctly).
Until next week,
Hank