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Network of Democracy Research Institutes
-Democracy Research News-No. 1, November 2001Welcome to the first issue of Democracy Research News, the newsletter of the Network of Democracy Research Institutes. The Network, one of several functional networks within the World Movement for Democracy, is a membership association of organizations that conduct research on democracy, democratization, and the policy and institutional challenges of democratic development. Membership in the Network is open to independent institutions, university-based study centers, and research institutes affiliated with political parties, labor unions, democracy and human rights movements, and other organizations. It was established to facilitate interaction and exchanges among democracy scholars and activists and to promote a greater awareness of the diversity and vitality of democracy studies today. Through its Web site, this newsletter, and other means, the Network provides information about the research, conferences, publications, and other activities of its diverse membership. The Network is administered by the International Forum for Democratic Studies in Washington, D.C. For a listing of member institutes and additional information, please visit the Network's Web site at www.wmd.org/ndri/ndri.html. For inquires about membership, please write to Tom Skladony (), senior program officer at the International Forum. Each issue of the newsletter will feature brief announcements of new publications by Network members, recent and coming events sponsored by member Institutes, news and announcements about the Network and its members, and notices and listings of new research on democracy (not limited to Network member publications). We also expect that readers will use the newsletter to initiate discussions, to pose questions on research topics, and to announce or propose collaborative projects on democracy. Contents 1. New Publications 2. Recent Events 3. News and Announcements 4. New Research on Democracy 1. New Publications The Centre for Policy Studies (South Africa) recently published two policy briefs: In Poor Voice: NCOP's Weakness Flows from the Westminster System by Thabo Rapoo, and A Future for the Provinces? New Rethink Needed on Role of Provinces by Caroline Kihato and Thabo Rapoo. The Centre has also released the first 2001 issue of its newsletter Synopsis, featuring articles and analysis on the South African parliament, privatization, and civil society. And its Social Policy Series has published numerous new reports on such issues as social capital and entrepreneurship, policy implementation, trade unions and democracy, gender identity, and the impact of foreign aid on civil society organizations in South Africa. Executive summaries of these reports are available at www.cps.org.za/execsumm/execsumm.html. Thawilwadee Bureekul of King Prajadhipok's Institute (Thailand) and Robert B. Albritton of the University of Mississippi presented a paper entitled "Developing Democracy Under a New Constitution in Thailand: A Pluralist Solution" at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, in Chicago, Illinois, April 18-22, 2001. The full text of the paper is available at www.kpi.ac.th. Idasa, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, recently published three important books. Money Matters 3: Women and Government Revenue by Debbie Budlender and Karen Hurt examines how different forms of government revenue affect women and men. Transparency and Participation in the Budget Process by Isaac Shapiro, Alta Fölscher, and Warren Krafchik is a collaborative project of Idasa's Budget Information Service and the International Budget Project of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C. And the Institute's Practical Guide to Local Government in South Africa by Lindiwe Ndlela, now in a revised second edition, remains an invaluable resource for those studying and working for democratic local governance. For more information about these and other Idasa publications, visit www.idasa.org.za. The Democracy Forum for East Asia, a partnership project of the NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies and the Sejong Institute (South Korea), has published a report from the Democracy Forum's October 2000 conference in Bangkok entitled "The Role of Civil Society in Promoting Democracy in East Asia." The conference was cosponsored by the International Forum, the Sejong Institute, the Asia Foundation, and King Prajadhipok's Institute, which also served as local host. The report is available online at www.ned.org/asia/index.html. A limited number of printed copies are available; please send a request to Tom Skladony . The Access to Information Programme (Bulgaria) has published a handbook entitled How to Apply the Access to Public Information Act in response to the parliament's passage in 2000 of a law providing such access, a reform the Programme had long advocated as essential to the development of democracy in that country. The full text of the handbook is available at www.aip-bg.org/l_research.htm. The International Centre for Policy Studies (Ukraine) recently published an essay by Vira Nanivska, the Centre's director, entitled "NGO Development in Ukraine" and a background paper entitled "Achieving Consensus on Reforms in Ukraine" for USAID Kiev. Both documents are available at www.icps.kiev.ua/eng/academic_research.html. The Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development (Georgia) published the July-August issue of Army and Society in Georgia, a bulletin of the Institute and its affiliated Center for Civil-Military Relations and Security Studies. The full text of the bulletin, entitled "Reform of the Georgian Defence Resources Management System," is available at www.cipdd.org/cipdd/index.htm. Rights and Democracy (Canada), in cooperation with Amnesty International, recently published "Investigating Women's Rights Violations in Armed Conflicts" by Agnčs Callamard, the latest in the organization's series of human rights essays. Rights and Democracy also published a report entitled "Human Rights and Statistics: Some Reflections on the No-Man's-Land between Concept and Indicator" by Nancy Thede as part of its democratic development studies program. The document is available at www.ichrdd.ca. Libert@s, the new Rights and Democracy electronic newsletter, began publication in September 2001. See www.ichrdd.ca for the latest issue. The October 2001 issue of the Journal of Democracy, copublished by the International Forum for Democratic Studies (USA) and the Johns Hopkins University Press, contains a symposium entitled "Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup," in which ten authors evaluate post-Soviet efforts at democratization, the legacy of communism, and the critical obstacles to future democratic success. Contributors include Zbigniew Brzezinski, Charles Fairbanks, Lilia Shevtsova, Ghia Nodia, and Michael McFaul. The October issue also includes articles on Hong Kong, Peru, the Asian values debate, and an analysis of how Burma could democratize. For the complete tables of contents of all Journal issues and a searchable archive of past issues, please visit www.journalofdemocracy.org. 2. Recent Events The Democracy Forum for East Asia organized a three-day conference in Seoul in June 2001 entitled "Political Finance and Democracy in East Asia: The Use and Abuse of Money in Campaigns and Elections." Participants included scholars, elected officials, political party leaders, and representatives of several national election commissions. A conference report and an edited collection of papers presented at the conference are in preparation. For more information, visit the Democracy Forum Web site at www.ned.org/asia/index.html. The Centre for Democratic Institutions (Australia), in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat's Deepening Democracy Program, conducted a workshop entitled "Accountability, Scrutiny, Oversight" in May 2001. The workshop's background papers and report are available online at www.cdi.anu.edu.au/research.html. Sir Anthony Siaguru, head of Transparency International, Papua New Guinea, delivered the Centre's annual address, entitled "The Great Game: Politics of Democracy in Papua New Guinea," in Canberra in June 2001. See www.cdi.anu.edu.au/index.html for the complete text. The International Forum for Democratic Studies organized several colloquia throughout the spring at its offices in Washington, D.C. Kayode Soremekun, professor of international relations at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria (and, at the time, a visiting fellow at the International Forum), delivered a lecture entitled "Democratization in Kenya and Nigeria: The Washington Dimension" on March 1. Svante E. Cornell, lecturer in peace and conflict research and East European studies at Uppsala University in Sweden, discussed "Democracy and Institution Building in the Caucasus" on March 20. Jacques Rupnik, research director of the Center for International Studies and Research, Foundation Nationale des Science Politiques, Paris, reported on "Democratization in the Balkans: Past Failures, Future Prospects" on April 5. And E. Gyimah-Boadi, executive director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, described "Ghana's Peaceful Transfer of Power: Lessons for Africa's Democrats" on April 9. On April 25 the International Forum hosted a discussion entitled "Making Coalition Government Work in Slovakia: Perspectives and Experiences," featuring Frantisek Sebej (Democratic Party) and Peter Weiss (Party of the Democratic Left), both members of the Slovak parliament. Zora Bútorová, a senior researcher at the Institute for Public Affairs in Bratislava (and then a visiting fellow at the International Forum), delivered a lecture entitled "Women in Slovakia: New Opportunities and Old Problems" on May 1. And Liu Junning, researcher at the Institute of Chinese Cultural Studies, Ministry of Culture, in Beijing, and Minxin Pei, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discussed "The Prospects for Political Reform in China" on May 25. The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (Ghana) organized a July 31 roundtable discussion entitled "Maintaining Internal Security in a Constitutional Democracy" and an August 2 seminar entitled "Conflict, Peace, and Reconciliation." Two subsequent Center events examined the Ghanian government's national reconciliation exercise (August 21) and democracy and conflict in Africa (August 22). And on September 13 the Center sponsored the 2001 International Roundtable Discussion on Crime and Security in the West Africa Subregion. The Access to Information Programme organized several workshops in February and March 2001 on the implementation of that country's new Access to Public Information Act. Representatives of local and regional governments and other participants discussed how the new law would promote greater civic awareness and help strengthen democracy in Bulgaria. Brief summaries of the workshops are available at www.aip-bg.org. 3. News and Announcements The Network of Democracy Research Institutes is pleased to announce the availability of a modest fund to support professional exchange visits among network members. The fund will provide partial financial support to allow individual researchers or small teams from developing democracies to visit their counterparts at other Network member institutes for brief working trips of (for example) 3-10 days duration. Typical expenses will include travel, housing, and meals expenses or other costs directly related to these visits. Funds may be requested for the following types of activities:
The above list is not exhaustive. But since the purpose of this program is to strengthen member institutes and the Network as a whole, all exchange visits must involve at least two member institutes, and possibly more. The visitor must come from a member institute in a developing democracy but the host organization may be any other Network member. We expect that both the visitor and the host institute will bear at least some of the costs of the exchange visit wherever possible. Depending on the available resources of the Network and the visitor and host institutions, the Network might provide air tickets or other travel costs while the visiting scholar provides for his or her own meals. The host institute will be expected to provide suitable workspace (desk, computer, Internet access, if possible) and to help secure (and perhaps even provide) local housing. Individual circumstances will vary, and the items above are merely examples. The exchange visits program is brand new. There is no formal application process. We encourage Network members to consult among themselves and, when they have developed possible partnership ideas, to send a brief letter of inquiry to Tom Skladony . This letter need not be more than two or three pages but should include a concise project description, a timetable, and a budget. We anticipate that we will be able to support four to six such professional visits in 2002 (or possibly more, depending on the amounts requested). If successful, we hope to continue and expand the program in future years. The International Forum for Democratic Studies is pleased to announce the establishment of the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program to enable democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of and enhance their ability to promote democracy. Reagan-Fascell Fellows are in residence at the International Forum in Washington, D.C. The first cohort of Reagan-Fascell Fellows arrived in Fall 2001. The International Forum anticipates hosting 12-15 fellows per year for three to ten months each. Each fellow will receive a monthly stipend for living expenses plus health insurance and reimbursement for travel to and from Washington, D.C. Applicants for Reagan-Fascell fellowships choose between two tracks: a practitioner track (typically three to five months) to improve strategies and techniques for building democracy and to exchange information with counterparts in the United States; and a research and writing track (typically five to ten months) to conduct original research for publication. The deadline for Fall 2002 fellowships is April 1, 2002. For more information, contact the International Forum for Democratic Studies, National Endowment for Democracy, 1101 15th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005; Telephone: 202-293-0300; Fax: 202-293-0258; E-mail: . The Centre for Liberal Strategies(Bulgaria), in cooperation with the Central European University, the New Europe College in Bucharest, and Wissenschaftkolleg Berlin, recently launched a program entitled "Agenda for Civil Society in Southeastern Europe (2000-2003)" or the "Blue Bird Project." The project's goal is to create a policy document by 2003 that will serve as the driving vision for the development of the region over the next twenty years. The project will address such issues as "How the Politics of Social Inclusion is Possible in Southeastern Europe," "How the Regional Economies Can Be Integrated in the Global Economy," "What is the Future of the Nation States in SEE?" and "Is SEE Identity Possible?" For more information, please visit www.cls-sofia.org. King Prajadhipok's Institute offers research support for graduate students at the M.A. or Ph.D. level whose work considers such topics as organizations that emerged following the adoption of the new Thai constitution, the ethical society and the development of democracy, the dispersion of authority, and conflict prevention through peaceful means. Candidates must be graduate students in a Thai or foreign university who are writing a thesis in Thai or English whose proposals have already been approved by their universities. Proposals are due by November 15. Please visit www.kpi.ac.th for more details. 4. New Research on Democracy APSA Annual Meeting Papers The full texts of all papers presented at the 2001 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in San Francisco, including dozens of papers on democracy and democratization, are available online at http://pro.harvard.edu from now until September 2002 (when they will be replaced by papers from the 2002 annual meeting). The Web site allows searches by subject, author, and other fields. Users may also locate papers by browsing subject headings such as political theory and comparative politics. Selected Books Received by the Journal of Democracy Political Theory Concepts and Theories of Modern Democracy. By Anthony H. Birch. Routledge, 2001. Democracy: A History of Ideas. By Boris Dewiel. University of Washington Press, 2000. Hard Choices: Social Democracy in the 21st Century. By Christopher Pierson. Polity, 2001. What Does It Mean to Be Human?: A New Interpretation of Freedom in World History. By Alan T. Wood. Peter Lang, 2001. Multiregional or Global Issues After the Fall: 1989 and the Future of Freedom. Edited by George Katsiaficas. Routledge, 2001. Beyond Tocqueville: Civil Society and the Social Capital Debate in Comparative Perspective. Edited by Bob Edwards, Michael W. Foley and Mario Diani. University Press of New England, 2001. The Democratic Experience and Political Violence. Edited by David C. Rapoport and Leonard Weinberg. Frank Cass, 2001. Governance in a Globalizing World. Edited by Joseph S. Nye and John D. Donahue. Brookings Institution, 2000. Parties without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Edited by Russell J. Dalton and Martin P. Wattenberg. Oxford University Press, 2000. Religion and Democracy. Edited by David Marquand and Ronald L. Nettler. Blackwell, 2000. Religion and Mass Electoral Behaviour in Europe. Edited by David Broughton and Hans-Martien ten Napel. Routledge, 2000. Rethinking Democratic Accountability. By Robert D. Behn. Brookings Institution Press, 2001. Africa Communication and Democratic Reform in South Africa. By Robert B. Horwitz. Cambridge University Press, 2001. Opposition and Democracy in South Africa. Edited by Roger Southall. Frank Cass, 2001. Middle East A Comparative Political Economy of Tunisia and Morocco: On the Outside of Europe Looking In. By Gregory White. State University of New York Press, 2001. Center of the Storm: A Case Study of Human Rights Abuses in Hebron District. Human Rights Watch, 2001. Post-Revolutionary Politics in Iran: Religion, Society and Power. By David Menashri. Frank Cass, 2001. State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East. By Roger Owen. Routledge, 2000. Asia and the Pacific Elections and Democracy in Greater China. Edited by Larry Diamond and Ramon H. Myers. Oxford University Press, 2001. From Opposition to Power: Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party. By Shelley Rigger. Lynne Rienner, 2001. State and Nation in South Asia. By Swarna Rajagopalan. Lynne Rienner, 2001. Understanding Korean Politics. Edited by Soong Hoom Kil and Chung-in Moon. State University of New York Press, 2001. War and Democracy: A Comparative Study of the Korean War and the Peloponnesian War. Edited by David R. McCann and Barry S. Strauss. M.E. Sharpe, 2001. Europe Nations in Transit: Civil Society, Democracy and Markets in East Central Europe and the Newly Independent States. By Adrian Karatnycky, Alexander Motyl, and Charles Graybow. Freedom House, 1999. Creating a Democratic Civil Society in Eastern Germany: The Case of the Citizen Movements and Alliance 90. By Christiane Olivio. Palgrave, 2001. Latin America Grassroots Expectations of Democracy and Economy: Argentina in Comparative Perspective. By Nancy R. Powers. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001. Towards Democratic Viability: The Bolivian Experience. Edited by John Crabtree and Laurence Whitehead. Palgrave, 2001. When the Hands Are Many: Community Organization and Social Change in Rural Haiti. By Jennie M. Smith. Cornell University Press, 2001. The United States and Mexico: Between Partnership and Conflict. By Jorge I. Dominguez and Rafael Fernandez de Castro. Routledge, 2001. United States and Canada America's Choice 2000. Edited by William Crotty. Westview, 2001. A Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments. By John R. Vile. Praeger, 2001. Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy. By Mark. R. Warren. Princeton University Press, 2001. Judicial Power and the Charter: Canada and the Paradox of Liberal-Constitutionalism. By Christopher P. Manfredi. Oxford University Press, 2000. Presidential Mandates: How Elections Shape the National Agenda. By Patricia Heidotting Conley. University of Chicago Press, 2001. Representative Americans: The Revolutionary Generation. By Norman K. Risjord. Rowman and Littlefield, 2001. |
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