It has been argued that we are witnessing a retreat from democracy promotion in liberal interventionism. Focusing on the roll-out of biometric voter registration (BVR) across Africa, as supported by institutions such as the United Nations Development Programme, this article suggests that rather than a retreat we are seeing the emergence of a new and seemingly lighter approach to liberal democracy promotion. Through an analysis of the use of BVR in Kenyan elections, the article illustrates some key implications of this development. At the local level, the framing of BVR as a ‘solution’ omits important challenges to democratic elections in Kenya. At the global level, the roll-out of BVR reinforces unequal global power structures, for example by constituting an increasing number of African states as laboratories for the trialling of a technology which, due to fears of hacking, has now been rolled back in the US. To make this argument, the article combines insights from recent debates about the state of liberal interventionism, with insights from Michel Foucault and Sheila Jasanoff about the politics of technology.

中文翻译：

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生物统计选民登记：一种新的民主援助方式？

有人争辩说，我们正在目睹自由干预主义中民主制的退缩。在联合国开发计划署等机构的支持下，着眼于在非洲各地推广生物识别选民登记（BVR），本文提出，我们看到的是，而不是退缩，我们看到了一种新的，似乎更宽松的自由主义方法的出现。民主促进。通过对肯尼亚选举中使用BVR的分析，该文章说明了这一发展的一些关键含义。在地方一级，将BVR作为“解决方案”的框架忽略了肯尼亚民主选举的重大挑战。在全球范围内，BVR的推出加剧了不平等的全球权力结构，例如，通过建立越来越多的非洲国家作为试验该技术的实验室，由于担心受到黑客攻击，该技术现在已在美国撤回。为此，本文结合了最近有关自由主义干预主义状况的辩论中的见解，以及米歇尔•福柯（Michel Foucault）和希拉•贾萨诺夫（Sheila Jasanoff）对技术政治的见解。