Book Project
To Rig the Rules or to Break the Rules: The Politics of Electoral Manipulation in Autocracies
My book project asks why some autocrats steal elections through blatant fraud while others manipulate them through formally legal changes to election rules. I argue that the choice depends on what publics can see and do. Where civil society is dense, information about fraud travels and collective action becomes credible; rulers abandon ballot box fraud for more subtle institutional engineering. Fraud and rule manipulation, in other words, operate as substitutes. I test the argument with an original dataset of election rule changes in all authoritarian regimes from 1945 to 2015, a list experiment and randomized-response design embedded in a nationally representative survey in Algeria, and nearly 200 interviews in Algeria, Jordan, and Kuwait. The implication is cautiously hopeful. Organized citizens may not stop manipulation, but they discipline it.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
The Patriarchal Peace: Violence Against Women in Politics in Authoritarian Contexts
Yuree Noh and Fatimah Saadi. 2026. Politics & Gender.
Gendered Backsliding: Anti-Gender Politics as a Mechanism of Democratic Erosion in South Korea
Eunbin Chung, Youn Ki, and Yuree Noh. 2026. Frontiers in Political Science.
AFYA Crossroads: Balancing Public Expectations With Fiscal Responsibility in Kuwait’s Health Insurance for Retirees
Abdullah Alibrahim, Yuree Noh, and Hala Sawas. 2025. World Medical & Health Policy 17: 491-495.
Regime Support and Gender Quotas in Autocracies
Yuree Noh, Sharan Grewal, and M. Tahir Kilavuz. 2024. American Political Science Review 118 (2): 706-723.
Who Supports Gender Quotas in Transitioning and Authoritarian States in the Middle East and North Africa?
Yuree Noh and Marwa Shalaby. 2024. Comparative Political Studies 57 (14): 2313-2347.
Electoral Institutions and Repression in Dictatorships
Chao-yo Cheng and Yuree Noh. 2024. Electoral Studies 89: 102791.
Public Opinion and Women’s Rights in Autocracies
Yuree Noh. 2024. Politics & Gender 20 (1): 241-245.
Vested Interests: Examining the Political Obstacles to Power Sector Reform in Twenty Indian States
Chao-yo Cheng, YuJung Julia Lee, Galen Murray, Yuree Noh, Johannes Urpelainen, and Joseph Van Horn. 2020.
Energy Research & Social Science 70: 101766.
Working Papers & In Progress
Measuring Democratic Backsliding and Authoritarian Entrenchment: Gendered Strategies of Co-optation and Suppression
Religious Authority and the Bounds of Support for Women’s Rights
With Karl Kaltenthaler
The Performance of Inclusion: State Messaging and the Limits of Direct Attitude Measurement under Authoritarianism
With Bethany Shockley and Simone Marsilio; Funded by the American University of Sharjah.
Backlash to the Backlash: Foreign LGBTQ+ Advocacy and Public Opinion
With Alberto López Ortega
Tax Morale in Rentier States: Evidence from a Survey Experiment
With Tarek Masoud; funded by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences
Militarized Deservingness: Conscription and the Gendered Politics of Rights
Pre-Analysis Plan for survey experiments in South Korea, Israel, and Norway
Interest to Action: Women and Public Leadership in the United Arab Emirates
With Bethany Shockley; funded by the American University of Sharjah, 2026-2028
Who Complies with Government Mandates? Trust and Compliance During the COVID-19 Pandemic
With Tarek Masoud; funded by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences.
Gender Reforms and Regime Messaging in Saudi Arabia: A Two-Decade Analysis.
With David Romney
Healthcare reform preferences in Kuwait: a nationally representative survey
With Abdullah Alibrahim and Hala Sawas.