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    • -Democracy Research News-

    No. 6, June/July 2004

    Welcome to Democracy Research News, the quarterly newsletter of the Network of Democracy Research Institutes (NDRI). The Network is a membership association of institutions that conduct and publish research on democracy and democratic development. It is also one of several functional networks associated with the World Movement for Democracy (www.wmd.org). This newsletter is one means of informing democracy scholars and others worldwide about the activities of and publications produced by NDRI member institutes. Additional information about the Network and profiles of all member institutes are available at www.wmd.org/ndri/ndri.html. To submit comments or to inquire about joining the Network, please write to Thomas Skladony ().

    Subscribing to Democracy Research News
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    Contents
    1. News and Announcements
    2. New Publications and Recent Events by NDRI Members
       2.1 Africa
       2.2 Asia and the Pacific
       2.3 Europe
       2.4 Latin America and the Caribbean
       2.5 Middle East
       2.6 Russia and the Former Soviet Republics
       2.7 United States and Canada


    1. NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

    The World Movement for Democracy (www.wmd.org), described by its organizers as a "network of networks" of groups and individuals working to advance democracy, convened its Third Assembly on February 1-4, 2004 in Durban, South Africa. The meeting, whose theme was "Building Democracy for Peace, Development, and Human Rights," drew more than 600 participants to its dozens of workshops, plenary sessions, and other fora. Many NDRI members spoke at or organized events at the Assembly, including those listed below:

    Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies (Bulgaria), delivered a keynote address at the opening plenary session.

    The Centre for Policy Studies (South Africa) and the People in Need Foundation (Czech Republic) organized a panel discussion on "The Role of Nongovernmental Communities in Promoting Democracy across Borders." The Centre for Policy Studies and the Center on Democratic Performance (United States) organized a workshop on "Governance, State Capacity, and Democracy in Developing Countries: Establishing Standards and Identifying Impediments." Publication also organized a workshop on "Making Effective Transitions to Democratic Representative Parties."

    The Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa, South Africa) and the Network of Democracy Research Institutes organized a workshop on "How Can Civil Society Actors Use Public Opinion Research to Improve and Strengthen Democracy?">Idasa and the Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights (Russia) organized a panel discussion of "Challenges to Political Participation: Linking Human Rights and Democracy.">Idasa also organized a workshop on "The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Participatory Democracy: How to Respond?"

    The Center for the Research of Societal Problems (TOSAM, Turkey) and the Foundation for Citizenship and Governance Training (South Africa) organized a workshop on "Indigenous Approaches to Conflict Resolution."

    The Center on Democratic Performance and Congreso Visible (Colombia) organized a workshop on "Ensuring Vital and Open Legislatures: The Nongovernmental Role.">Congreso Visible, Corporación Región (Colombia), and Panorama (Palestine) organized a workshop on "Strategies for Democrats in Situations of Armed Conflicts.">Congreso Visible also organized a regional workshop on Latin America and the Caribbean.

    The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV, Turkey), the Durban Chamber of Commerce (South Africa), and the Center for International Private Enterprise (United States) organized a workshop on "The Role of Business Associations in Democratic Development."

    The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (United States) and Sisters in Islam (Malaysia) organized a workshop on "Democracy in the Muslim World: Obstacles, Difficulties, and Best Methods."

    The Network of Democracy Research Institutes organized a workshop on the "Quality of Democracy."

    Reports from each workshop will be available on the Third Assembly Web site (www.wmd.org/third_assembly/index.html) later in the year.

    The International Forum for Democratic Studies (United States, www.ned.org) invites applications for its Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program for the 2005-2006 program year. The Program was established in 2001 to enable democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and to enhance their ability to promote democratic change. While the program is intended primarily to support activists, practitioners, and scholars from new and aspiring democracies, distinguished scholars from the United States and other established democracies are also eligible to apply. Projects may focus on the political, social, economic, legal, and cultural aspects of democratic development and may include a range of methodologies and approaches. Please note that a working knowledge of English is an important prerequisite for participation in the program. The application deadline for fellowships in 2005-2006 is Monday, November 1, 2004. For more information, visit www.ned.org/forum/fellows.html.

    Center for Democracy and the Third Sector (CDATS, United States, www.georgetown.edu/centers/cdats) invites submissions to the second issue of its newsletter, Democracy and Society. Authors may submit manuscripts (of 800 to 2,000 words) on two themes: the market and democracy, and politics and the third sector. Items may be sent by e-mail to cdatsnews@georgetown.edu by Friday, August 27. For additional information, please contact Nicole Love or David Madland at +01-202-965-2265 or cdatsnews@georgetown.edu.

    The Center for Democracy and Development, Nigeria (www.cdd.org.uk) calls for articles for the next issue of Democracy and Development: Journal of West African Affairs, a special theme issue that will examine "Religion and Society in Contemporary West Africa." For further information, write to Ebenezer Obadare at e.obadare@lse.ac.uk or Morten Hagen at mhagen@cdd.org.uk, or visit CDD's homepage at www.cdd.org.uk. The deadline for submissions is July 30.

    NDRI Welcomes Four New Members: Four new institutes have joined the Network of Democracy Research Institutes in the past two months. The Network, which now includes fifty-two research centers, continues to look for additional potential members worldwide and readers' suggestions of such institutes are most welcome. We are pleased to welcome the following new members (whose activities are reported below in the appropriate geographic sections of this newsletter):

    The Academy of Political Education (APE, Mongolia, www.apemongolia.org), a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that seeks to support and strengthen a democratic social order based on solidarity, the rule of law, and respect for human rights and individual liberties. The Academy engages in educational activities that help inculcate democratic values. It also undertakes independent as well as collaborative research projects in the fields of economy, politics, and law. APE publishes Shine Toli, a quarterly journal, and has compiled the lectures of its research associates in ten volumes. It has also translated important works on democracy and world politics into Mongolian, including Zbigniew K. Brzezinski's The Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century.

    The State of the Nation Program (Programa Estado de la Nacion, Costa Rica, www.estadonacion.or.cr) is a nongovernmental research institute that focuses on democracy and sustainable development both in Central America and in the broader Latin American region. The Program works closely with the United Nations Development Programme, the Swedish Development Agency, the Embassy of the Netherlands, Costa Rican universities, and Latin American specialists worldwide on such issues as social and economic development, comparative analyses of Central American regimes, and the quality of democracy in Costa Rica.

    The Democratic Initiatives Foundation (Ukraine, www.ukma.kiev.ua/pub/DI/) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that supports Ukraine's transition to a fully-functioning democracy through conducting and analyzing public opinion surveys. The Foundation also helps promote an informed political process and a free press, while aiding the process of European integration by making Ukraine more understandable to the West.

    The Human Rights Centre, a research unit of the University of Essex (United Kingdom), is the institutional home of the Democratic Audit (www.democraticaudit.com/index.php). Although the Democratic Audit began with (and is still best known for) empirical studies of democracy in Britain, the Audit has since launched a number of international research projects and now conducts training workshops for scholars from developing democracies who wish to conduct democracy audits in their respective countries. In collaboration with the Institute for Democracy and Election Assistance in Stockholm, the Centre recently produced, The IDEA Handbook on Democracy Assessment, as well as a "Do-It-Yourself Auditing" framework available on the Centre's Web site.


    2. NEW PUBLICATIONS AND RECENT EVENTS

    2.1 AFRICA

    Six new titles have been added to the Afrobarometer (www.afrobarometer.org) Working Paper series, which now includes forty papers available for free download at www.afrobarometer.org/abseries.html. These include "The Micro-Foundations of Ethnic Voting: Evidence from South Africa" by Karen E. Feree; "Political Institutions and Satisfaction with Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa" by Wonbin Cho; Understanding Identity in Africa: A First Cut" by Robert Mattes; and "Marginalisation in Southern Africa: Transformation from Below?" by Anthony J. Leysens.

    The Afrobarometer Web site also contains twelve Briefing Papers (www.afrobarometer.org/abbriefing.html), including "Democracy and Electoral Alternation: Evolving African Attitudes," a study of how popular attitudes toward democracy changed between 1999 and 2003.

    E. Gyimah Boadi, executive director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (www.cdd-ghana.org), edited Democratic Reform in Africa: the Quality of Progress (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004), a major collection of case studies and thematic essays evaluating political and economic change in the past decade. Among the NDRI scholars who contributed to the volume are Michael Bratton and Robert Mattes (Afrobarometer), Steven Friedman (Centre for Policy Studies, South Africa), and Larry Diamond (Stanford University and International Forum for Democratic Studies, United States). For contents and ordering information visit www.rienner.com/viewbook.cfm?BOOKID=1392.

    Mr. Gyimah-Boadi participated in an April 27 symposium on political corruption organized by the Ghana Integrity Initiative, where he used examples of electoral corruption from the United States and Europe to buttress his recommendations for anticorruption efforts in the Ghanaian context. A summary of his presentation is available at www.cddghana.org/documents/Election%20Corruption.pdf.

    The March 2004 issue of Democracy Watch, the Center's quarterly newsletter, featured articles on Ghanaian and African politics, plus notices of recent and future Center events. For the full text visit www.cddghana.org/documents/democracywatch%20(Vol%205_no_1%202004).pdf.

    A group of four leading South African social-science research organizations "are combining their efforts to research and analyze the 2004 elections, and gauge the implications for governance and democracy for the next five years," according to Chris Landsberg, director of the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS, www.cps.org.za), whose partners include the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa, www.idasa.org.za), the Democracy and Governance Programme of the Human Sciences Research Council, and the Centre for Public Participation. The project will include workshops and seminars throughout South Africa on such issues as public participation, politics and identity, campaign tactics, and the analysis of opinion polls. It has also begun publishing a newsletter called electionsynopsis, featuring brief analytical articles and survey data. (Visit www.cps.org.za/synopsis.htm or www.hsrc.ac.za/media/2004/index.html for links to available issues.)

    The Centre for Policy Studies also publishes synopsis, its own quarterly governance review (available at www.cps.org.za/synopsis.htm). The April issue included an article by Shelton George entitled "Talking versus Walking: The Promotion and Realization of Democracy in Africa," in which Mr. George contrasted public commitments to democratization by African heads of state and government and the actual implementation of the numerous resolutions on democracy and human rights announced by these leaders.

    The Institute for Democracy in South Africa's (Idasa, www.idasa.org.za) Budget Information Service recently published "Investigating the Implications of Ten Years of Democracy for Women: The Role of the Department of Labour," a paper by Debbie Budlender that examined the state of women in South Africa's labor market, and "Investigating the Implications of Ten Years of Democracy for Women: The Role of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development" by Penny Parenzee, which reviewed how the department has addressed gender inequalities. Both papers (and other Idasa studies) are available at www.idasa.org.za/bis.


    2.2 ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

    The Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI, Australia, www.cdi.anu.edu.au), in collaboration with IDP Education Australia, sponsored a workshop on "Good Governance and Behavioural Change," which met April 29-30 in Phonm Penh, Cambodia. The event brought together forty representatives from governments, nongovernmental organizations, the business sector, and donors for discussions of such issues as enforcing codes of fair electoral conduct, international norms and domestic legislation against corruption, and selected social issues that impact governance. More information about the conference, including a program, agenda, list of participants, background papers, and transcripts can be found at www.cdi.anu.edu.au/cambodia/Cambodia_GG&BC_Apr04.htm.

    Roland Rich, CDI's director, presented a study entitled "Crafting Security Council Mandates" at Australia's Research School of Social Sciences on May 5. The study examined the growth in number and complexity of UN Security Council resolutions, particularly those that include democratization mandates, since the end of the cold war. The full text is available at www.cdi.anu.edu.au/research_publications/research_CraftingSecurityCouncilMandates_2004.htm. It will also appear in a forthcoming book, The UN Role in Promoting Democracy: Between Ideals and Reality, edited by Edward Newman and Mr. Rich.

    In June the CDI published "Consolidation and Change: The Indonesian Parliament after the 2004 Elections," a research paper by Stephen Sherlock, a political analyst and consultant working in that country. (For the full text visit www.cdi.anu.edu.au/research_publications/research_Consolidation&Change_Indoelections_2004.htm.)

    The January-April 2004 issue of the Journal of East Asian Studies, produced and edited by the East Asia Institute (EAI, South Korea, www.eai.org.kr), included an article by Meredith L. Weiss entitled "The Changing Shape of Islamic Politics in Malaysia." The May-August issue included "Human Security and East Asia: In the Beginning" by Paul M. Evans. Both issues included additional articles and reviews on East Asian politics, economics, and security issues. For contents and ordering information visit www.rienner.com/viewbook.cfm?BOOKID=1354.

    On March 21 the Institute for National Policy Research (INPR, Taiwan, www.inpr.org.tw), the Asia Research Centre of the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the Taiwan Foundation cosponsored a major conference in Taipei on "The Implications of Taiwan's Presidential Election and Referendum." Foreign and Taiwanese participants discussed election results and speculated on their likely impact on Taiwan and its neighbors. Visit www.inpr.org.tw/inprc/recent/president%20agenda.htmfor an agenda and summaries of the conference presentations.

    Noranit Setabutr, secretary general of King Prajadhipok's Institute (KPI, Thailand, www.kpi.ac.th), recently published "The Constitutional Court.and Society's Expectations," a study that traces the antecedents and recent development of Thailand's highest constitutional authority. The full text is available at www.kpi.ac.th/download/Constitutional%20Courted.pdf.

    A related study-"The Constitution: Political and Executive Reform" by Likit Dhiravegin-described how the 1997 Thai constitution attempted to reform public administration, to curb perennial political problems (such as official corruption and vote buying), and to increase public participation in politics. The full text is available at www.kpi.ac.th/download/Reformed.pdf.

    The Political Education Academy of Mongolia (APE, Mongolia, www.apemongolia.org), a new NDRI member, has begun work on a political dictionary that would make available to Mongolian readers key concepts of democratic governance and an open society. With support from the United Nations Development Programme, the Academy also published The Elements of a National Integrity System, as its contribution to current efforts to develop international standards for the country's developing democratic institutions. In April 2004 the APE conducted opinion surveys across Mongolia as part of the East Asia Barometer's international survey of the quality of democracy.


    2.3 EUROPE

    Several NDRI scholars contributed research to Nations in Transit 2004, the annual Freedom House comparative survey of twenty-seven former communist states. They included Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies (CLS, www.cls-sofia.org), who wrote on Bulgaria with CLS colleagues Rashko Dorosiev and Georgy Ganev; Ghia Nodia, chairman of the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development (www.cipdd.org), who wrote on Georgia; Alina Pippidi, president of the Romanian Academic Society (SAR, www.sar.org.ro), who covered Romania; and Grigorij Mesežnikov, president of the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO, www.ivo.sk), who studied Slovakia with IVO colleagues Miroslav Kollár and Michal Vase?ka. The complete text of Nations in Transit 2004 is available at www.freedomhouse.org/research/nattransit.htm.

    The Access to Information Program (AIP, Bulgaria, www.aip-bg.org) has just published its annual report on "Access to Public Information in Bulgaria 2003." The 70-page report (full text available at www.aip-bg.org/pdf/aip-report2003.pdf) summarized the year's most important developments and included practical recommendations for improving access to public information in the country. On May 14-15, AIP organized a regional conference in Sofia on "Advocacy for Freedom of Information-Independent Monitoring." The conference (visit www.aip-bg.org/monconf/agenda_eng.pdf for the agenda) brought together experts from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine who collaborate in the International Freedom of Information Advocates Network.

    Two NDRI members-the Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS, Bulgaria, www.iris-bg.org) and the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development (CIPDD, Georgia, www.cipdd.org)-have partnered with the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (Moldova) to conduct a democratic audit in their three respective countries. The institutes prepared policy papers on each country assessing the performance of selected government institutions, and organized roundtable discussions with government officials and opinion leaders on their findings. A final report on the project will be published in Bulgarian, Georgian, Romanian, and English.

    The May 2004 issue of Revue Politika, published by the Center for the Study of Democracy and Culture (CDK, Czech Republic), featured articles on the presidential election in Austria, the early presidential elections in Macedonia, plus preview articles on the elections to the European parliament. Summaries and selected full texts (in Czech only) are available at     www.cdkbrno.cz/proglas.php?id=2004_5.

    The CDK maintains an active book publication program that includes original Czech scholarship and translations of important works of political science and contemporary thought. Among the Center's most recent books (available in Czech only) are The Left in the Postrevolutionary Period: Civil Society and the New Social Movement in the Radical Political Theory of the Twentieth Century by Pavel Barsa and Ondrej Císar, Political Parties of Russia: In Search of Identity by Jan Holzer, The Culture of Protest and the Politicization of Everyday Life by Radim Marada, and Ethnic and Regional Parties in the Czech Republic since 1989, edited by Miroslav Mares. Visit www.cdkbrno.cz/knihy.php?PHPSESSID=108ca52b625234f7ed0a83789c6c7ddc for the Center's complete book catalog.

    Center for Policy Studies (CPS, Hungary, www.ceu.hu/cps) and the Centre for Advanced Study (Sofia) organized a conference on "The Balkans and Globalization," June 4-7 at the Central European University in Budapest. The event featured panel sessions on "Balkan Legacies," "Regional Identities," and "Nationalism, Orthodoxy, and Communism." For a program, visit www.ceu.hu/cps/eve/eve_balkanglob_program.htm.

    The CPS published "Social Capital Research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union: An Annotated Bibliography" by Dimitrian Mihaylova in its Working Paper Series. The full text is available at www.ceu.hu/cps/pub/pub_papers_scapbiblio.pdf.

    The Institute of Public Affairs (ISP, Poland, www.isp.org.pl) published Neighbourhood Across A Divide? Borderland Communities and EU Enlargement. Edited by Piotr Kazmierkiewicz, the 280-page book contained eight case studies of the impact of European Union enlargement on local communities that will become new borderlands.

    The Institute also published European Parliament and Polish and EU Institutions in the Polish Public Opinion by Krzysztof Pankowski, a monograph analyzing recent surveys of citizens' trust in European Union and domestic political institutions. And it published "Constitution for Europe-Political Attempts to Overcome a Stalemate Situation" by Michal Czaplicki in its Analyses and Opinions essay series. (The full text available at www.isp.org.pl/docs/briefs/analyses21.pdf.)

    ISP researchers are coordinating a project examining the impact of EU enlargement on the Central and East European region in collaboration with think tanks from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Visit www.isp.org.pl/frames/projekty/proj_impactEN.htm for country reports and for more information about this project.

    The Instituto de Estudos Politicos (IEP, Portugal, www.ucp.pt/iep/index.html) will hold its twelfth International Annual Meeting in Political Studies in Cascais, Portugal on July 7-10. Cosponsors of the meeting, whose theme this year is "Ideas of Europe and the Trans-Atlantic Relations," include the Harvard Summer Program, Boston College Summer Program, and Wyzsza Szkola Biznesu of National-Louis University in Poland. Conveners of the meeting are Joăo Carlos Espada, director of IEP; Marc F. Plattner, director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies, and Adam Wolfson, editor of The Public Interest. Visit www.ucp.pt/iep/uk/eep_prog_2004_uk.html for a complete program.

    The Fall/Winter 2003 issue of the Romanian Journal of Political Science, published by the Romanian Academic Society (SAR, www.sar.org.ro), featured three articles on "Weak States and Post-Communist Societies." The issue also included articles on the Macedonian crisis of 2001 and the changing nature of European citizenship, plus a Romanian scholar's response to articles by Thomas Carothers and Paula J. Dobriansky on promoting democracy and fighting terror that were published in the journal Foreign Affairs in 2003. Visit www.sar.org.ro/pages/publications_rjps.php for selected texts and abstracts.

    Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, president of SAR, contributed an essay entitled "Beyond the New Borders" to the January 2004 Journal of Democracy, in which she argued that enlargement of the EU would not solve existing border problems but merely shift them eastward.

    On May 25 SAR organized a full day of discussions on "Securing Moldova's Place in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities within the EU's European Neighbourhood Policy." The Brussels meeting of think-tank and civil society representatives from Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and the EU issued a five-page summary of policy recommendations to help secure Moldova's political and economic stability in Europe. (For the text, visit www.sar.org.ro/files_h/docs/events/Final%20Resolution%20Moldova%2002.06.pdf.)

    The March 2004 issue of SAR's Policy Warning Report, entitled "Romanians Are Looking For A Political Alternative," examined citizen's election-year political party preferences, finding that as many as 72 percent of Romanians want a political change in 2004. The June 2004 Policy Warning Report, entitled "The 2004 Elections and the Reform of Local Governments: Analysis, Forecasts, and Recommendations," analyzed Romania's June 6 local elections and the extent to which the exercise of local power is subject to democratic control. Visit www.sar.org.ro/pages/publications_pr.php for the Romanian and English texts.

    In March 2004 the Center for Liberal-Democratic Studies (CLDS, Serbia and Montenegro, www.clds.org.yu) received a Templeton Freedom Award Grant for Institute Excellence from the U.S.-based Atlas Economic Research Foundation. The newly-launched awards program recognized fifteen "outstanding and promising young think tanks" from around the world. The Atlas Foundation (www.atlasusa.org) administers a network of more than 200 think tanks in sixty-seven countries that study economic issues from a free-market perspective.

    Boris Begovic, vice president of CLDS, presented a new study of "Corruption in the Serbian Judiciary" at a May 5, 2004, seminar in Washington, D.C. The event was organized by the Center for International Private Enterprise, whose Web site features an audio recording and Power Point presentation of the talk (www.cipe.org/whats_new/events/webevents/b_begovic.htm).

    The Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM, Serbia and Montenegro, www.cedem.cg.yu) published the latest issue of Transition in Montenegro: Legislation, Media, and Privatization in March 2004. The quarterly report contained articles on political parties and divisions in Montenegrin society, the transformation of public television broadcasting, reform of public administration, and fighting corruption in public procurement. Each article ended with a set of policy recommendations. The complete document is available at www.cedem.cg.yu/cedem.htm.

    The Institute for Public Affairs (IVO, Slovakia, www.ivo.sk) published the English version of Slovakia 2003: A Global Report on the State of Society in April 2004. Edited by Grigorij Mesežnikov and Miroslav Kollár, the 700-page book contains thirty chapters on all aspects of political and social life in the Slovak Republic, written by the country's most prominent social scientists.

    In May IVO published Party Government in Slovakia: Experience and Prospects (in Slovak only). Edited by Olga Gyárfásová and Grigorij Mesežnikov, the book analyzed key aspects of political parties in Slovakia: their role in society, how they mobilize voters, and how they interact with institutions of government. Ms. Gyárfásová and Mr. Mesežnikov also edited Slovakia: Ten Years of Independence and a Year of Reforms (IVO, 2004), a set of studies originally presented at a Bratislava conference cosponsored by IVO and the International Republican Institute.

    More information about these and other IVO publications is available at www.ivo.sk/index_en.php.

    The Centre for the Study of Public Policy (CSPP, United Kingdom, www.cspp.strath.ac.uk) published "New Russia Barometer XII: The Duma Election," the latest in the series of New Russia Barometers compiled by Richard Rose, the Centre's director, and VCIOM-Analytica. The study was based on a nationwide representative sample conducted immediately after the Russian State Duma election in December 2003 and included questions about attitudes toward President Putin and other candidates for the presidential election of March 2004. For ordering information, visit the Centre's Web site and follow links for the New Russia Barometer.

    Democratic Audit (www.democraticaudit.com/index.php), a research project within the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex (United Kingdom, www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre), maintains an extensive set of analytical tools on designing and conducting democracy audits, including bibliographies, at www.democraticaudit.com/auditing_democracy/index.php#1.

    The most recent book-length study from the Democratic Audit is Democracy Under Blair (2002), by David Beetham, Iain Byrne, Pauline Ngan, and Stuart Weir (director of the Democratic Audit). For a summary and ordering information visit www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/news/audit_essex.pdf.


    2.4 LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

    The State of the Nation Program (Programa Estado de la Nacion, Costa Rica, www.estadonacion.or.cr), a new NDRI member, recently published A Civic Audit of the Quality of Democracy. The 174-page study of the state of democracy in Costa Rica is available in Spanish at www.estadonacion.or.cr/Calidad02/calidad.html.

    Other recent State of the Nation publications in Spanish (and available at the institute's Web site) include studies of human development in Central America and a major report on the state of economic, social, and political conditions in Costa Rica. The Program also contributed research to a ten-country survey of budget transparency in Latin America. The overall project, completed in 2003, was directed by FUNDAR (Mexico, www.fundar.org.mx).


    2.5 MIDDLE EAST

    The May 2004 issue of Civil Society, the monthly newsletter of the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies (ICDS, Egypt, www.eicds.org), included articles on the recent Arab Summit, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, prison abuses in Iraq, and an Arab response to the proposed Greater Middle East Initiative. Each issue of Civil Society also includes brief reports from eleven countries in the region. The text is available at www.eicds.org/civilsociety/civilsociety.asp.

    The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI, www.idi.org.il) published its 2004 Israeli Democracy Index, an annual survey of the state of democracy in that country based on quantitative measures, international rankings, and public opinion surveys conducted in Israel. The Index was compiled by Asher Arian, Shlomit Barnea, and Pazit Ben-Nun.

    On June 1, Asher Arian, senior fellow at IDI and lead author, presented highlights from the 2004 Israeli Democracy Index at a conference in the residence of Moshe Katzav, president of the state of Israel. Following his presentation, President Katzav and senior representatives of the Israeli Knesset, Supreme Court, and Cabinet (among others) offered their reflections on the Index and on the state of democracy in Israel.

    On June 1-3, IDI and the International Forum for Democratic Studies (IFDS, USA, www.ned.org) cosponsored a conference on democratic audits in Jerusalem that brought together many NDRI members who conduct similar audits, including scholars from the Institute for Regional and International Studies (Bulgaria), Ghana Center for Democratic Development, Romanian Academic Society, St. Petersburg Humanity and Political Studies Center (Russia), Center for Liberal-Democratic Studies (Serbia and Montenegro), Institute for Public Affairs (Slovakia), King Prajadhipok's Institute (Thailand), and Democratic Initiatives Foundation (Ukraine). More information about the conference is available at www.idi.org.il/english/news.php?nid=52afe7f2e865fbf895b539db030ff80b.

    For the complete text of the 2004 Israeli Democracy Index visit www.idi.org.il/english/article.php?id=205bf79ab2a9fdbc8aa2b819f733b9da.

    The Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV, www.tesev.org.tr) served as a local partner of the April 2004 Congress of Democrats from the Islamic World, whose organizers were the National Democratic Institute and the United Nations Development Programme. More than eighty delegates from eleven countries participated in discussions of the primary challenges to achieving or securing democracy in Islamic countries. For conference remarks by Can Paker, chairman of TESEV, visit www.tesev.org.tr/eng/events/Apr12_cpaker_remarks.php.

    The TESEV Democratization Program organized the first in a series of guest lectures on Issues in Democratization on March 10, when Vali Nasr of the Naval Postgraduate School spoke on "Emerging Trends in Islamism: Reform and Prospects for Islamic Democracy." Visit www.tesev.org.tr/eng/events/tcs_democratization.php for a summary.

    TESEV also recently published Parliamentary Oversight of the Security Sector: Handbook for Parliamentarians. The book was compiled by the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces and the Interparliamentary Union. A transcript of the May 21 book launch in Ankara is available at www.tesev.org.tr/eng/. The complete Turkish text of the handbook is available at www.tesev.org.tr/projeler/guvenlik_Sektoru_metin.pdf.

    The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID, United States, www.islam-democracy.org) held its fifth annual conference on May 28-29 in Washington, D.C. The theme this year was "Defining and Establishing Justice in Muslim Societies." For a complete program and additional information, visit www.islam-democracy.org/5th_Annual_Conference__announcement.asp.

    The May 2004 issue of Muslim Democratic, the Center's newsletter, is available at www.islam-democracy.org/documents/pdf/md_may2004.pdf, as is a report on the CSID's April conference on "Shari'ah and Ijtihad: The Sudanese Experience" (www.islam-democracy.org/conference_report_sudan_april_2004.asp).

    The Center has also launched a new Web site in Arabic at www.islam-democracy.org/ar.


    2.6 RUSSIA AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION

    The June issue of Legislative Process in the State Duma: Human Rights Analysis, a monthly monitor published by the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights (Russia, www.demokratia.ru/eng), the Institute of Human Rights, and the International Historical-Enlightenment Human Rights and Humanitarian Society, reviewed recent legislative activity in the Russian State Duma on issues relating to human rights and democracy. Current and past issues are available in Russian and English at www.demokratia.ru/eng/analyst/reviewlaws/.

    The Carnegie Moscow Center (Russia, www.carnegie.ru) celebrated its first ten years of operations with an April 22 conference in Moscow entitled "Prospects for Russia." The international gathering of scholars, political leaders, and foreign officials opened with a panel discussion of "Democracy in Russia" and continued with sessions on Russian-European relations, U.S.-Russian security cooperation, and the Russian economy. As part of the celebration, the Moscow Center published Russia: The Next Ten Years. Edited by Andrew Kuchins and Dmitri Trenin, the Center's director and deputy director, respectively, the collection presented essays by current and former Carnegie experts on the most vital issues facing Russia in the coming decade. The Russian-language text is available at www.carnegie.ru/en/pubs/books/70330.htm.

    The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (www.ceip.org), parent organization to the Carnegie Moscow Center, published Between Dictatorship and Democracy: Russian Post-Communist Political Reform. Edited by Michael McFaul of the Carnegie Endowment and Nikolay Petrov and Andrei Ryabov of the Moscow Center, the book examined the kind of political regime that has taken root in post-Soviet Russia, especially during the presidency of Vladimir Putin. For contents and ordering information visit www.ceip.org/files/Publications/BetweenDictatorship.asp?from=pubdate.

    The St. Petersburg Center for Humanities and Political Studies (Strategy, Russia, www.strategy-spb.ru) provides complete information on its numerous projects on its Russian-language Web site. The Strategy Center also recently published On the Way to Public Policy: 10 Years of Strategy (2004), a collection of essays in English from its first decade of existence on such topics as civil society and government, transparent budgeting, and preventing corruption. Write to Michael Gorny, executive director, at mg@strateg.spb.su for information on obtaining the book.

    Recent issues of the ICPS newsletter, published by the International Centre for Policy Studies (ICPS, Ukraine, www.icps.kiev.ua), that are of interest to democracy scholars include "Ukraine Needs to Improve the Way it is Managing European Integration" (June 21), "Civil Service Reforms Are Being Based on Public Policy" (June 14), and "Ukraine's Top Priorities: Researchers and Politicians Share Views" (April 12). For a free subscription to this weekly electronic newsletter and for information about other ICPS publications, visit www.icps.kiev.ua/eng/publications/nl.html.


    2.7 UNITED STATES AND CANADA

    Rights & Democracy (International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, Canada, www.ichrdd.ca) held its annual Think Tank on June 10 in Ottawa. Launched in 1999, the event focuses each year on a major world issue that impacts human rights and democracy. The focus this year was "The Democratic Transition and the Campaign against Impunity in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Keys to the Stabilization of Central Africa." Participants in the full-day meeting included Congolese political and civil-society actors, Canadian experts and governmental officials, Africa specialists from the United Nations and the European Union, and members of the board of directors of Rights & Democracy. For an agenda, program outline, background papers, and a bibliography on the DRC visit www.ichrdd.ca/frame2.iphtml?langue=0&menu=m01&urlpage=/english/commdoc/publications/africa/thinktank/DRCmainTT.htm.

    The Center for Democracy and the Third Sector (CDATS, United States, www.georgetown.edu/centers/cdats/) has launched an American version of the Citizenship, Involvement, and Democracy survey project. Modeled on a European study that has been conducted in thirteen countries, adapted to an American context, the project will probe respondents' attitudes toward family, friendship networks, the workplace, and neighborhoods, plus measure their involvement in clubs, associations, and organizations. It is expected to provide a rich perspective on citizen participation in the public and private realms. Marc Morjé Howard, assistant professor of government, Georgetown University, directs the two-year project. For more information visit www.georgetown.edu/centers/cdats/cid.htm.

    Mark E. Warren, professor of government, Georgetown University, posted a working paper entitled "The Democratic Functions of Appearance Standards" on the Center's Web site. The paper discussed whether regulations not only of overt corruption but of the appearance of impropriety can be justified from the perspective of democratic theory. The author invites comments but asks readers not to cite this working paper, whose text is available at www.georgetown.edu/centers/cdats/WarrenAppearanceStandards.pdf.

    The most recent event in the CDATS lecture series featured Marina Ottaway, senior associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who discussed "Women's Rights and Democracy in the Arab World" on April 22.

    Recent books from scholars affiliated with the Center for the Study of Democracy (United States, www.democ.uci.edu) include Games Prisoners Play: The Tragicomic Worlds of Polish Prison by Marek Kaminski (Princeton University Press, 2004). The author, himself a political prisoner in his native Poland in the 1980s, used game theory to explain how the seemingly irrational actions of prisoners can be understood as predictable and rational responses to a brutal environment. For additional content and ordering information visit http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/7770.html.

    Russell J. Dalton, director of the Center, recently completed Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: the Erosion in Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford University Press, 2004). The author documented the decades-long decline in trust in virtually all advanced democracies and traced rising public expectations, especially among younger, better educated, and politically sophisticated citizens. For more information visit www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/ComparativePolitics/ComparativePolitics/?view=usa&ci=0199268436.

    The Center also published "Political Participation in Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe" by Samuel Barnes; "Geographical Representation under Proportional Representation: the Cases of Israel and the Netherlands," by Michael Latner and Anthony J. McGann; and "Protest and Political Incorporation: Vietnamese American Protests, 1975-2001" by Nhu-Ngoc T. Ong and David S. Meyer. Full texts of these and earlier Center papers are available at http://repositories.cdlib.org/csd/.

    The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL, United States, http://cddrl.stanford.edu/) organized a conference on "Governance and Sovereignty in Failed and Failing States" on April 16-17. The conference opened with discussions of why states fail, and why failed states continue to exist (in Africa, for example). Subsequent panels considered the role of the United Nations and other international actors in responding to instances of state failure, case studies of Bosnia, Iraq, and Russia, and a review of policy alternatives. An agenda and a summary of this event are available at http://iis-db.stanford.edu/evnts/3781/governance-conference.pdf.

    The Center organized a June 7 research seminar featuring Nikolay Vladimirov Marinov, a CDDRL fellow, who presented a paper entitled "Do International Regimes Punish Heretics More than Infidels? A Study of the Democratization Clause in International Agreements." The study developed a theory of how economic integration furthers democratization, using evidence from recent transitions in Eastern and Southern Europe. The full text is available at http://iis-db.stanford.edu/evnts/3824/marinov_EconInt0604(abs).pdf.

    On May 14 the Center hosted a lecture by Francis Fukuyama of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. The lecture, entitled "State-building: A Framework for Thinking about the Transfer of Institutions to Developing Countries," was based on Mr. Fukuyama's recent State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century (Cornell University Press, 2004). A PowerPoint presentation of this event is available at http://cddrl.stanford.edu/events/3858/.

    John McMillan and Pablo Zoido presented a paper entitled "How to Subvert Democracy: Montesinos in Peru" on May 3. Their work is available at http://iis-db.stanford.edu/evnts/3823/Montesinos_0421.pdf.

    The International Forum for Democratic Studies (United States, www.ned.org) and the Ethics and Public Policy Center cosponsored a June 17 panel discussion of "Christianity and Democracy: Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Contributions." Featured speakers-all of whom had contributed articles on the topic to the April 2004 Journal of Democracy-included Daniel Philpott, University of Notre Dame; Elizabeth Prodromou, Boston University; Robert D. Woodberry, University of Texas-Austin; Peter L. Berger, Boston University; and Timothy S. Shah, Ethics and Public Policy Center, who organized the event with Marc F. Plattner, editor of the Journal. George Weigel, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, served as commentator. An edited transcript of the event will be published shortly on the Web site of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (www.eppc.org).

    A Note of Thanks
    International Forum interns Steven Bulthius and William Calladine collected news items, checked facts, and helped to write this issue of Democracy Research News.

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