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Democracy Research News

-Democracy Research News-

November-December 2006

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. The newsletter will continue to evolve as the Network grows, and we invite readers' comments and suggestions of useful features they would like to see in future issues. 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 Melissa Aten ().

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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
   2.5 Middle East
   2.6 Russia and the Former Soviet Union
   2.7 United States and Canada

1. NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. News and Announcements

NDRI Washington Workshop: The International Forum for Democratic Studies hosted the third NDRI Washington Workshop for Think-Tank Managers from September 11–15, 2006, in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the workshop was to strengthen NDRI members as institutions and to improve the administrative skills of key staff members. Eleven participants, selected through a competitive application process, spent a full week visiting many of the most important policy-research centers in Washington, including the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Heritage Foundation, the Koch Charitable Foundation, and others. They met with top administrators responsible for fundraising, budgeting, book publishing, communications and outreach, Web-site development, and networking. Participants in this year’s workshop included Olorunfunmi Alaka (Center for Democracy and Development, Nigeria), Hernán Alberro (Centro Para La Apertura Y El Desarrollo De America Latina, Argentina), Oleksandr Dyshlevyy (Democratic Initiatives Foundation, Ukraine), Ana Echague (Fundación Para Las Relaciones Internationales Y El Diálogo Exterior, Spain), Zeina El Helou (Lebanese Center for Policy Studies), Jacek Kucharczyk (Institute for Public Affairs, Poland), Lilla Jakobs (Center for Policy Studies, Hungary), Johanna Reyes Marciales (Congreso Visible, Colombia), Marko Paunovic (Center for Liberal-Democratic Studies, Serbia), Besa Shahini (Kosovar Stability Initiative), and Tina Tkeshelashvili (Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy, and Development, Georgia).

NDRI Welcomes Three New Members: We are pleased to welcome the following new members of the research network (whose activities are reported in the appropriate geographic sections of this newsletter):
• the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT), an independent, non-partisan and not-for-profit indigenous research and training institution with the mission to strengthen democracy and democratic institutions in Pakistan;

• Instituto de Ciencia Politica (ICP, Colombia), an independent, non-profit research center that examines democracy- and free market-related activities in Colombia;

• Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS) 'Viitorul' (Moldova), a non-profit, non-governmental think tank that contributes to the growth of an independent thinking environment in emerging democracies and to the strengthening of local and regional governments.

Several NDRI Members at IPSA: On July 9–13, 2006, the International Political Studies Association held its 20th World Congress on “Is Democracy Working?” in Fukuoka, Japan. Several NDRI members presented papers at the conference, including “Consolidating Democracy: A Comparison of the 2001 and 2005 Parliamentary Elections in Thailand” by Thawilwadee Bureekul (King Prajadhipok’s Institute); “Changing Attitudes towards the United States among Korean Public” by Byung-Kook Kim (East Asia Institute); “From London to Ulaanbaatur: Making the State of Democracy Travel” and “Democratization in the Age of Rights” by Todd Landman (Human Rights Centre); “The Citizen as Subject? The Quality of Democracy in Africa” and “‘We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us:’ Domestic Politics and South Africa’s Role in Promoting African Democracy” by Steven Friedman (Institute for Democracy in South Africa); “The Quality of Democracy in Southern Europe” by Leonardo Morlino (Interuniversity Research Centre on Southern Europe); “Political Parties and Political Engineering in Divided Societies” by Benjamin Reilly (Centre for Democratic Institutions); and “Exclusion and Poverty as Determinants of Democracy” by Marta Lagos (Latinobarometro). The Asian Barometer convened a panel on “Asian Barometer: Where and How It Can Be Improved.” Andreas Schedler (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas) convened two panels: “Beyond Linearity: Research Methods and Complex Social Phenomena” and “Analyzing Democracy: Concepts, Measures, Methods,” for which he presented the paper “Electoral Authoritarianism: Concepts, Measurements, and Dynamics.”

The Asian Barometer recently upgraded its Web site to include a new section that provides all the downloadable working papers, conference papers, and a list of all the published works coming out of the Barometer’s first-wave survey. The Asian Barometer is also currently releasing the first-wave crossnational data upon request to the social science community and policy world at large. Anyone interested in utilizing Asian Barometer’s data is welcome to visit their Web site and to download the application form.

On October 27, 2006, the Access to Information Program (AIP, Bulgaria) celebrated its 10th anniversary with a conference on “Ten Years Advocacy for Access to Information” that featured panels on the role of access to information and the media, human rights, transparent governance, and the environment. Participants included representatives of local and international think tanks, government and EU officials, and foreign dignitaries.

The Center for Policy Studies (CPS, Hungary) recently uploaded the 2,000th article to its free online Policy Documentation Center, a collection of policy studies, reports, and proposals from Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe and the countries in the former Soviet Union. The database currently includes contributions from 155 think tanks, research centers, policy programs, and government ministries. All the papers are in English and are fully searchable by country, topic, keyword, author, and institute.

Based on the initiative of the Romanian Academic Society (SAR) and modeled after their highly successful Coalition for a Clean Parliament anti-corruption campaign in 2004, the East European Integrity Network was launched in October 2006. The goals of the network are to “transfer the good practices from one country to another and to provide technical and logistical support” for the initiators of similar anti-corruption campaigns throughout Eastern Europe. More information about the Network and a list of its founding members is available here.

Boris Begovic was recently promoted to president of the Center for Liberal-Democratic Studies (CLDS, Serbia). His fields of expertise include industrial organization, economics of regulation and antitrust, economics of public utilities, urban economics, and economic analysis of law. Begovic previously served as the chief economic adviser to the Federal Government of Yugoslavia from 2000 to 2002, where he was involved mainly with negotiations with international financial institutions, WTO accession, foreign trade liberalization, and foreign debt rescheduling.

On October 5, 2006, FUNDAR (Mexico) was one of nine small nonprofits to win the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s first MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. The $500,000 award will be used to purchase and equip a permanent office in Mexico City.

On June 14, 2006, Viktor Chumak was named the new director of the International Centre for Policy Studies (ICPS, Ukraine). Mr. Chumak is the Centre’s main expert on security and defense issues and holds degrees in military science and jurisprudence. He previously served as the permanent member of the Ukrainian delegation to the European Commission on the Ukraine-EU Action Plan. He is the author of twelve studies and helped to draft eleven bills of law. In July, Alexander Kwasniewski, former president of the Republic of Poland, became the new chair of the Centre’s supervisory board.

The Center for Democracy and Civil Society (CDACS, U.S.) released the data from the “Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy” (CID) survey. Conducted in the spring and summer of 2005, the survey presents an unusually broad and deep picture of American civic engagement from a comparative perspective. Among other themes, it includes a comprehensive set of questions on the composition and diversity of informal social networks, involvement in voluntary associations, democratic values, and tolerance. A subset of the survey was replicated from the European Social Survey (ESS), allowing for comparisons between the U.S. and 22 European countries. CDACS is also pleased to announce the inauguration of its Occasional Papers series. The first Occasional Paper, “Citizenship Norms and Political Participation in America: The Good News Is…the Bad News Is Wrong,” by Professor Russell J. Dalton, is available here.

The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL, U.S.) welcomes applications for its 2007–2008 pre/post-doctoral fellowship program. Pre-doctoral students at the write-up stage and post-doctoral scholars working in any of the four program areas of democracy, development, evaluating the efficacy of democracy promotion, and the rule of law are encouraged to apply. The Center expects to award between four and six 9-month fellowships a year, and fellows will receive a stipend, health care, and other benefits. More information about the fellowship and its application process is available here. Applications must be received by January 8, 2007.

2. New Publications and Recent Events by NDRI Members

Africa

Five new studies have been added to the Afrobarometer Working Paper series since the last issue of Democracy Research News. In “Voters But Not Yet Citizens: The Weak Demand for Vertical Accountability in Africa's Unclaimed Democracies” (September 2006) Michael Bratton and Carolyn Logan answer the question: “Why has democracy – or, at least, multiparty elections – so far failed to secure better governance and greater accountability?” They conclude that although Africans support electoral politics, they have not asserted their rights as citizens, especially in demanding accountability from their leaders.

In “Citizens and the State in Africa: New Results from Afrobarometer Round 3” (May 2006), Carolyn Logan, Tetsuya Fujiwara, and Virginia Parish examine the results of the third round of public opinion surveys in eighteen African countries and found that citizens are relatively satisfied with the quality of their elections, but the ability for those elections to generate accountability from the representatives is questionable.

Other recent additions to the Working Paper series include: “Delivery or Responsiveness? A Popular Scorecard of Local Government Performance in South Africa” (August 2006) by Michael Bratton and Mxolisi Sibanyoni; “Where is Africa Going? Views From Below: A Compendium of Trends in Public Opinion in 12 African Countries, 1999-2006” (May 2006), by Michael Bratton and Winbon Cho; and “Popular Reactions to State Repression: Operation Murambatsvina in Zimbabwe” (April 2006) by Michael Bratton and Eldred Masunungure.

Afrobarometer has also added ten new editions to its Briefing Papers Series, including “Performance and Legitimacy in Nigeria’s New Democracy” by Peter H. Lewis, “Changing Attitudes towards Democracy in Lesotho” by John Gay, and “South Africans’ Rating of Government Performance.” Full texts of all briefing papers are available here.

On April 21, 2006, Jibrin Ibrahim, director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-Nigeria), published “Legislation and the Electoral Process: the Third Term Agenda and the Future of Nigerian Democracy,” which highlights three major challenges facing Nigeria on the road to the 2007 elections: the ability of the National Assembly and INEC to maintain their goals of achieving free and fair elections in 2007, a possible change to the Constitution that would allow President Olusegun Obasanjo to serve a third term despite the wishes of the Nigerians, and monitoring the elections to ensure they are “not as massively rigged as the previous ones were.”

CDD also acted as the regional research partner for the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance’s searchable database on political parties throughout the world. CDD’s contribution, “Nigeria: Country Report Based on Research and Dialogue with Political Parties,” contains an explanation of the internal functioning and structuring of four of Nigeria’s political parties, based on interviews with representatives of the Alliance for Democracy, the All Nigeria People’s Party, the All Progressive Grand Alliance, and the People’s Democratic Party.

On October 16, 2006, E. Gyimah-Boadi, executive director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development delivered the speech “Civil Society and National Development” at the symposium on The Church and The State as Development Partners, in which he discussed the advantages and disadvantages of civil society in promoting national development. While civil society has the potential to increase economic, social, and political development, Mr. Gyimah-Boadi also argues that civil society organized around religious, ethnic, racial, and caste lines tends “to be highly and/or totally exclusive to all others and are therefore inherently closed to the rest of society.”

CDD-Ghana also published the January-March 2006 Democracy Watch, which includes a lead essay on the saga involving the mismanagement of Ghana International Airlines, plus additional articles and commentary on the recent ministerial reshuffling, presidential briefings, recent demonstrations against the ‘Representation of the People Amendment Bill,’ and leadership in the Ghanian Parliament.

In August 2006, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS, South Africa) published “The Discourse of the Developmental State and a People’s Contract in South Africa,” the latest addition to its Policy: Issues and Actors paper series. Written by Omano Edigheji, the paper analyses the discourse around the developmental state and how the “people’s contract,” a main theme of the African National Congress’ 2004 general elections manifesto, functions within a democratic South Africa. The author argues that, in spite of support by politicians and state officials for a developmental state, the concept has not been properly defined. Consequently, this has hampered the state’s capacity to build the institutional characteristics of such a state. Edigheji concludes that “it is pertinent to bring citizenship back into politics through a people’s contract in order to have a developmental state that is also democratic.”

In May 2006, the Democracy in Africa Research Unit (DARU, South Africa) published “Can Parliaments Enhance the Quality of Democracy on the African Continent? An Analysis of Institutional Capacity and Public Perceptions,” a new edition to the Unit’s Working Paper series. Written by Lia Nijzinc, Shaheen Mozaffar, and Elisabete Azevedo, the paper evaluates the ability of African parliaments to enhance democracy by analyzing their institutional capacity and the way they are perceived by the citizens they represent.

In October 2006 the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) published two books on the impact of HIV/AIDS on democratic governance in South Africa. Democratization in the Age of HIV/AIDS: Understanding the Political Implications, by Kondwani Chirambo, finds that HIV/AIDS has several negative consequences on democratic government, including attrition among elected leadership, the prevention of disclosure among infected policymakers that may compromise concerted efforts to combat the disease by the elite, increased power and gender imbalances in the decision-making process, and a reduction of the pool of voters in South Africa.

Parliament, Politics, and Aids: A Comparative Study of Five African Countries, by Mary Caesar-Katsenga and Marietjie Myburg, examines efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS endemics by parliaments in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, and South Africa and provides lessons learned and detailed analysis of the effective use of parliamentary oversight in national responses to HIV/AIDS.

Idasa also recently published a series of four handbooks for community-based organizations (CBO’s). In Advocacy & Communication: A Handbook for CBOs, Yvette Geyer examines the advocacy, lobbying, and communication tools at the disposal of community-based organizations and examines how CBO’s can use these tools to ensure their impact is as wide as possible. In Integrated Development Planning, Yvette Geyer provides an overview of the various processes implement integrated development planning at the local level. CBO Management, by Marta Chechetto-Salles and Yvette Geyer, highlights management skills, a typology of managerial styles, and the main functions of managers in CBOs. Finally Strategic Planning, also by Yvette Geyer, explains what strategic planning is, how to plan strategically, and how to ensure that strategic planning is implemented.

Asia and the Pacific

On July 6, 2006, the Centre for Democratic Institutions (CDI, Australia) launched Political Parties in the Pacific Islands, edited by Roland Rich, Luke Hambly, and Michael G. Morgan and published by Pandanus Books. The book addresses the implications of uninstitutionalized and ineffective political party systems across the Pacific and aims to serve as a benchmark reference work on political parties in the Pacific. It includes chapters on East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa. Ordering information is available here.

On July 20, 2006, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, delivered CDI’s 2006 Annual Address on “Islam and Democracy,” which included a discussion of the “essential compatibility between traditional Islamic scripture and the basic freedoms and liberties on which representative democracy is based.” Mr. Ibrahim also emphasized the importance of contemporary Indonesia as a model of Islamic democracy, one he stressed must be nurtured by the West as a successful example of a democratic Muslim state. Video of the lecture is available here.

CDI recently launched a new Policy Paper series that focuses on pressing issues of political governance in the Asia-Pacific. The papers, which will be aimed specifically at policymakers, seek to forge research-to-policy links and provide new insights on subjects of particular concern to CDI. The first paper in the series “Indonesia’s Regional Representative Assembly: Democracy, Representation and the Regions. A Report on the Dewan Perwakilan Daerah (DPD),” by Stephen Sherlock, marked the first serious analysis of the role of Indonesia's new regional assembly, the Dewan Perwakilan Daerah. The second paper in the series, “Political Parties, Electoral System, and Women’s Representation in the 2004–2009 Indonesian Parliaments,” by Wahida Zein Br Siregar, discusses the challenges to women's political representation in Indonesia.

The CDI 2006 International Political Party Assistance Roundtable held on September 7, 2006, was the first to draw together all key actors working on political party development in Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific. The roundtable focused on the “lessons learned from the experience of political party assistance in the Asia-Pacific region, and the sharing of experiences to identify optimum strategies of party assistance in CDI’s target countries of Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu and in the broader Asia-Pacific region.” The meeting established a network of organizations who will work closely in the task of political party assistance.

In June 2006, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR, India) published “Growth in Urban India: Issues of Governance,” a 130-page report written by K.C. Sivaramakrishnan that analyzes the rising level of urbanization in India and the challenges of urban governance, such as a lack of basic services, poor or nonexistent urban planning, and rural-urban migration. The author suggests a decentralization of power as one of the key solutions to these problems.

In September 2006, the Hong Kong Transition Project of Civic Exchange (Hong Kong) released “Reforming the District Council,” a survey of public opinion in all eighteen of Hong Kong’s District Council constituencies. Respondents were asked about their voting patterns, their participation in civil society organizations, their interaction with government officials, what they considered the most pressing societal issues, and their desire to reform District Councilors. A full list of questions and results are available here.

In June 2006, Civic Exchange co-founder Christine Loh edited Functional Constituencies: A Unique Feature of the Hong Kong Legislative Council (Hong Kong University Press, 2006), a 416-page manual that provides detailed information about the legal context, history, and makeup of functional constituencies and their electorates. The chapters examine the impact of functional constituency members on social and economic policymaking. In the final chapter, Loh concludes by evaluating reform proposals and suggesting how the system’s democratic legitimacy could be enhanced within the existing constraints on reform. Information on how to obtain this bilingual English–Chinese publication is available here.

In April 2006, the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) launched a series of briefing papers aimed at increasing the effectiveness of parliamentarians in Pakistan. “How to be an Effective Parliamentarian,” by Syed Naveed Qamar, provides practical advice to and guidelines for women parliamentarians to use available tools and resources to increase their effectiveness in parliament. “Being an Effective Parliamentarian,” by M. P. Bhandara, explains the dynamics of effective parliamentary leadership. Other papers in the series include Farhatullah Babar’s “Briefing Paper for Pakistani Women Parliamentarians Being an Effective Committee Member” (May 2006) and “How Can Parliamentarians Make an Effective Contribution? Gender-Responsive Budgets” by Mohammad Sabir (June 2006).

PILDAT also published “Caretaker Government During Election: A Comparative Study of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India” in June 2006. The paper explains the constitutional provisions for a caretaker government in Pakistan and uses case studies from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh to warn about the dangers of these arrangements in unconsolidated democracies.

The September–December issue of the Journal of East Asian Studies, edited at the East Asia Institute (EAI, South Korea) and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers, includes articles on “Party Fabrication: Constitutional Reform and the Rise of Thai Rak Thai” by Allen Hicken; “East Asian Financial Regionalism in Support of the Global Financial Architecture? The Political Economy of Regional Nesting” by William W. Grimes; and “Does Economic Integration Across the Taiwan Strait Make Military Conflict Less Likely?” by Scott L. Kastner. Article abstracts, a complete table of contents, and ordering information are available here.

Kie-Duck Park, vice president of the Sejong Institute (South Korea) wrote Theory and Practice of Korean Democracy: Transition, Consolidation, and Stabilization (Hanwool Academy, 2006), a 383-page book that traces Korea’s transition to democracy, examines its course of democratic consolidation, and discusses how Korea overcame the challenges of the 1997 economic crisis and the concurrent political crisis. In his concluding chapter, Park argues that the Korean government should stabilize the current socio-political regime through the continuation of free elections and respect for the rules of the game rather than by reforming the system.

As part of its ongoing Voices of Reconciliation Program, the Media Unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA, Sri Lanka), published “Work in Progress: Preliminary Observations for Synthesis Media Report,” by Sanjana Hattotuwa and Radhika Hettiarachchi, in April 2006. The report compiles preliminary observations from several media sources in Sri Lanka to identify overlaps, gaps, and omissions in reporting and to develop recommendations for genuine media reform.

CPA also published the May-June 2006 Media Monitor, a 32-page newsletter that highlights problems with the media in Sri Lanka. The issue features articles on gender quality in the Sri Lankan media, ethical journalism, and journalistic creditability.

On November 3–5, 2006, King Prajadhipok’s Institute (KPI, Thailand) and the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives held its Congress VIII on “Constitutional Reform: Comparative Perspectives,” which brought together over 700 former members of the House of Representatives, former Senators, policymakers, NGO activists, academics, and representatives of the international democracy promotion community, to discuss panels on “Political Parties, Elections, and the Exercise of Legislative Power;” “Balance of Power and Relationships between the Legislative and Executive Branches;” “Oversight of the Exercise of State Power by Independent Organizations According to the Constitution;” “Oversight of the Exercise of State Power by the People; “Decentralization and Empowerment of Civil Society;” and “Unjust Discrimination Against People.” Papers presented at these panels, as well as a program agenda are available here.

In August 2006, KPI published the third edition of its KPI Yearbook, Eyes on Thai Democracy: National and Local Issues. Edited by Niyom Rathamarit, the collection of articles explores some of the important issues facing Thailand today, including the character and reform of political institutions and processes, oversight in the Thai political system, and decentralization. Full text of the Yearbook will be available on soon KPI’s Web site.

On July 12, 2006, Robert B. Albritton and Thawilwadee Bureekul presented “Consolidating Democracy in Thailand: The First Four Years of Democracy under the Constitution of 1997” at the International Political Science Association’s annual meeting in Fukuoka, Japan, in which the authors discuss the results of two national surveys conducted in 2001 and 2005. The data reveals “significant progress in public attitudes favorable of democratic freedoms and processes.” The surveys also reveal, however, that as the rural masses have come to dominate elections, a significant resistance to mass democracy has developed among elites, who expected democracy under the new Constitution to be elite driven.

Europe

The Access to Information Program (AIP, Bulgaria) published its annual report on “Access to Information in Bulgaria 2005,” by Alexander Kashumov, Darina Palova, Fany Davidova, Gergana Jouleva, Kiril Terziiski, and Nikolay Marekov. The 75-page document includes a discussion of changes to access to information and personal data protection legislation in 2005, a survey of information published by Bulgarian institutions at their own initiatives, and case studies of the results of freedom of information requests. It also includes practical recommendations for improving access to public information in Bulgaria.

The Centre for Liberal Strategies (CLS, Bulgaria) contributed the chapter “Lessons Learned from Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States” to Democratizing Security in Transition States, a collection of the findings, recommendations, and resources from an October 2005 Roundtable for CIS Parliamentarians that was co-sponsored by the UNDP, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), and the Czech Government. The chapter, written by Daniel Smilov and Rumyana Kolarova, uses six case studies (Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine, and Kosovo) to discuss the role of parliaments in conflict and post-conflict situations and identifies trends and problems that are common to Eastern Europe as a whole.

The Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS, Bulgaria) and the Institute for Democracy “Societas Civilis” Skopje – Macedonia co-published “The Process of Decentralization in Macedonia: Prospects for Ethnic Conflict Mitigation, Enhanced Representation, Institutional Efficiency and Accountability,” by Martin Lessenski, Antonina Habova, and Vladimir Shopov. The study addresses problems with the ongoing process of decentralization in Macedonia, such as lack of public trust, the appointment of civil servants along ethnic lines, and the fears by ethnic Macedonians that municipalities dominated by ethnic Albanians will unite and form a federation. The authors offer a number of recommendations, including the launch of a public information campaign that emphasizes a European, rather than an ethnic identity, and establishing public-private partnerships to oversee the decentralization process.

In September 2006, Ognyan Minchev, executive director of IRIS, wrote “Major Interests and Strategies for the Black Sea Region: Framework Analytical Review,” in which he examines the competing interests of three groups in the Black Sea region: the West, post-Soviet Russia and Turkey, and the “smaller Black Sea countries,” such as Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Mr. Minchev offers suggestions for increasing the security and stability of the Black Sea region, such as NATO enlargement, securing energy supplies, and resolving its “frozen conflicts.”

On June 8, 2006, the European Stability Initiative (ESI, Germany and Turkey) published “Utopian Visions: Governance Failures in Kosovo’s Capital,” a discussion paper that identifies the shortcomings in the urban development strategy and governance in Pristina, including corruption, illegal and unsafe construction, the demolition of historical landmarks, and a deteriorating infrastructure. In their discussion of an alternative strategy for Pristina’s future development, the authors argue that developers need to be realistic in their goals for the capital city, to address the concerns of current inhabitants, and to ensure the development strategy is enforced legally.

The summer 2006 Turkish Policy Quarterly, published in cooperation with ESI, was a special theme issue on “The Wider Black Sea Area: Region, Crossroads, or Buffer?” Topics covered in this issue include U.S. policy toward the Black Sea region, the South Caucasian conflicts, and Turkey-NATO partnership.

The Center for Policy Studies (CPS, Hungary), the Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and the Embassy of Canada in Budapest hosted a roundtable discussion on “The Roma in Hungary: Socio-Economic Status, Human Rights Protection, and Migratory Dynamics” on September 20, 2006, at the Central European University in Budapest. Researchers, academics, and representatives of Roma non-governmental organizations met to discuss the socio-economic conditions of Roma compared to the Hungarian population, human rights legislation, and migration issues.

On June 26, 2006, CPS and the Open Society Institute hosted a public discussion on “Roma Issues in Hungary: A Consultation with the UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues.” The open forum gave the UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues, Gay McDougall, an opportunity to consult with representatives of Roma organizations and those working on Roma issues. For more information about this event, please contact Lilla Jakobs.

Igor Munteanu, executive director of the Institute for Development and Social Initiatives 'Viitorul' (IDIS, Moldova) participated in an international conference on “Common Vision for Common Neighborhood,” held in Vilnius, Lithuania in May 2006. Mr. Munteanu presented the paper “Moldova’s Place within the European Neighbourhood: Facts and Prospects,” in which he discussed steps taken by Moldova towards European integration and possible complications with further EU enlargement, such as a disinclination to include former Soviet states in the Union and the necessity of further reforms in Moldova to meet membership requirements.

In May 2006, the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM, Montenegro) released Montenegro 2006 Democracy Index, the first index of its kind in Montenegro. Coordinated by Miloš Bešic, the project measures the state of democracy on two separate fronts: the public’s perception of the state of democracy and “objective indicators that can be summarized through statistical procedure.” The indicators measured include: democracy of political processes, rule of law, economic freedoms and economic participation, education, media, national and religious minorities, position of women, and position of disabled persons. The Index found that while women and minorities enjoy a positive position in society, the areas of rule of law, economic freedoms and participation, and political processes need to be improved.

CEDEM also released the results of its August 2006 “Political Public Opinion” poll in which respondents were queried about their confidence in institutions, satisfaction with the government, trust in the media, and their view on membership in NATO and the EU. While an overwhelming majority (76.5 percent of respondents) wanted to join the EU, opinion was equally divided on NATO membership.

The July-August 2006 CEDEM Newsletter features articles on Montenegro’s aspirations to join the European Union, including the role of civil society in the integration process. It also features a list and brief descriptions of recent activities at CEDEM.

The Institute of Public Affairs (ISP, Poland) recently published Assisting Negotiated Transition to Democracy: Lessons from Poland 1980-1999. The book, written by Jaroslaw Cwiek-Karpowicz and Piotr Maciej Kaczynski, illustrates how the U.S. and European Union supported Poland’s transition to democracy in 1989 by examining its assistance in key areas of democratic governance: political pluralism, free elections, economic reforms, rule of law, human rights, reform of the police and army, free press, and citizen participation.

The latest English-language addition to ISP’s Analyses & Opinions series, “The EU Should Be the Leader of Democracy Promotion in Russia,” by Jaroslaw Cwiek-Karpowicz, argues that the EU is the only international actor that “has an opportunity to effectively support democratic processes in Russia” and should therefore engage in long-term activities to gradually change the mindset of Russians using a wide-range of democracy promotion tools.

ISP released a May 2006 survey report on “Polish Public Opinion on the European Union and the Constitutional Treaty.” Written by Jaroslaw Cweik-Karpowicz, the survey presents a complex picture of Polish public opinion toward the EU. Support for EU integration, for example, is very high (80 percent), but 77 percent of respondents also believe that “Polish accession to the EU has had no effect on their lives.” The survey also finds that although Poles trust European institutions more than the institutions of their national government, they are also becoming increasingly critical of the way the EU operates. Only 22 percent of respondents believe that efforts to ratify the current EU Constitution should continue as is, while 44 percent believe a new constitution should be drafted.

The Romanian Academic Society (SAR) published the winter 2006 Romanian Journal of Political Science, the Society’s bi-yearly peer reviewed journal. This issue’s theme is “Religion and Politics” and includes articles on religion and multiculturalism in Romania, church-state relations in postcommunist Romania, civil society in Central Asia, secularism in Moldova, and the religious educational system in contemporary Serbia.

On September 27, 2006, the Institute for Public Affairs (IVO, Slovakia) held an international conference on “Visegrad Elections: Domestic Impact and European Consequences” that featured panels on populism in “old” and “new” Europe, EU Enlargement, the EU Neighborhood Policy after the Visegrad elections, and Euro-Atlantic relations. Over 80 academics, journalists, politicians, and NGO representatives participated in the conference.

Program Director Ol’ga Gyarfasova participated in an October 27, 2006 workshop on “Parliamentary Election and Party Landscape in the Visegrad Group Countries” that was organized by the Institute for Comparative Political Research in Prague. Ms. Gyarfasova and Vladimír Krivý presented the paper “Electoral Behaviour: Persistent Volatility or Clear Sign of Consolidation?” for the workshop that also included presentations by political scientists from the four Visegrad countries.

On July 18, 2006, IVO President Grigorij Meseznikov and Honorary President Martin Butora participated in a conference cosponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Friends of Slovakia on “Slovakia after the Elections: Domestic and Foreign Policy Implications” in Washington, D.C. The speakers, who also included Slovak Ambassador Rastislav Kacer, analyzed the results and implications of the June 17 parliamentary elections in Slovakia, and commented on the evolution of bilateral relations between Bratislava and Washington.

The Democratisation and Rule of Law Program of FRIDE (La Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior, Spain) published Strategies for Democratic Change: Assessing the Global Response (June 2006), a book by the Program’s codirector, Richard Youngs, and Ted Piccone. The book examines “how the international community has responded to recent threats to democracy in seven countries” and provides “an in-depth analysis of how EU states, the United States and other international actors can better fulfill their commitments to support democracy by coordinating common strategies.”

The Program also published two new editions of its Democracy Backgrounder series. The September 2006 Backgrounder, “Europe’s Engagement with Iran: What Happened to Political Reform?” explores “whether the European Union has privileged nuclear containment policies to such an extent that it has turned a blind eye to, or even facilitated, the undermining of Iran’s political reform movement.” The July 2006 Backgrounder, “Russia: The G8 Summit and Beyond,” outlines developments in EU-Russian relations and discusses important policy dilemmas facing European governments in their strategies toward Moscow.

Richard Rose, director of the Centre for the Study of Public Policy (CSPP, United Kingdom), William Mishler, and Neil Munro published Russia Transformed: Developing Popular Support for a New Regime (Cambridge University Press, 2006). Using data from the Centre’s New Russia Barometer surveys, the book examines the contradiction between a citizenry that desires democracy, but that also supports Vladimir Putin’s autocratic regime. The authors conclude that it is the “passage of time that has been most important in developing support for the new regime,” as the public has gradually resigned to accept Putin’s regime as a lesser evil than alternatives. The table of contents and introductory chapter are available here.

Recent additions to the Centre’s Studies in Public Policy series include “Diverging Paths of Post-Communist Countries: New Europe Barometer Trends since 1991” by Richard Rose; “Will Putin Opt for Early Elections to the Duma and/or the Presidency?” by Peter Reddaway; “Time Matters: Adapting to the Consequences of Transformation” by Richard Rose, William Mishler, and Neil Munro; “Political Behaviour in Time and Space” by Richard Rose; “Generations through Time: The Dynamics of Political Learning during Russia’s Transformation” by William Mishler and Richard Rose; and “The Korea Democracy Barometer Surveys 1997–2004: Unraveling the Cultural and Institutional Dynamics of Democratization” by Doh Chull Shin and Jaechul Lee. Abstracts of all papers in the series and ordering information are available here.

Latin America

In September 2006, the Center for Opening and Development in Latin America (CADAL, Argentina) published “Press Freedom and Economic Development in Latin America 2006,” by Hernán Alberro, an annual survey that seeks to demonstrate the close relationship between press freedom and economic development. Using data from three independent indicators (Freedom of the Press by Freedom House, 2006 Economic Freedom Index by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, and World Bank data on purchasing power parity, the report reveals that Latin America’s ranking of press freedom and economic development “has deteriorated regardless of the fact that there has been hardly any changes in the positions the countries hold in the ranking.” Reasons given for the lack of progress include democracy’s fragile state in the region, a deterioration of the rule of law, and weak economic growth.

CADAL also published “Local Level Journalism and Democracy Indicators in Latin America,” part of CADAL’s ongoing chronicle of the status of journalists and journalism in Latin America. Written by Fernando J. Ruiz and covering the first half of 2006, the report finds that ten journalists were murdered during the time period covered in the survey, there are at least twenty-six areas in Latin America where it is extremely dangerous to be a journalists, the Cuban repression of the media is the most efficient in the region, and Venezuelan journalism is under increased threat by Chavez’s pressure on the media.

The Instituto de Ciencia Política (ICP, Colombia) co-edited the Spanish language version of the 2006 Index of Economic Freedom: The Link between Economic Opportunity and Prosperity with the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. The Index ranks 161 countries on ten broad measures of economic freedom: trade policy, fiscal burden of government, government intervention in the economy, monetary policy, capital flows and foreign investment, banking and finance, wages and prices, property rights, regulation, and informal market activity. Researchers found that economic freedom in Latin America improved marginally since last year: Fifteen countries in the region improved, while ten declined and one stayed the same.

FUNDAR (Mexico) published a series of handbooks in 2006 on a wide array of subjects, including Los primeros ocho años (The First Eight Years) by Helena Hofbauer; Transparencia en el presupuesto público (Transparency in the Social Budget) by Mariana Peréz and Jorge Romero, El gasto social en el gobierno del cambio (Social Spending and the Government of Change) by Kristina Pirker and Alberto Serdán; Mortalidad materna (Maternity Morality) by Daniela Díaz; VIH/SIDA y el presupuesto federal (HIV/AIDS and the Federal Budget) by Gabriel Lara, Helena Hofbauer, and Alicia Athié; Programas sociales y elecciones (Social Programs and Elections) by Alberto Serdán; Ingresos petroleros y gasto público (Oil Revenue and Public Spending) by Rocio Moreno; La CNDH frente al reto de la transición democrática (The National Commission on Human Rights: Facing the Challenge of Democratic Transition) by Graciela Rodríguez, Luis Miguel Cano, Miguel Pulido and Omar Tecalco; and Acciones y retos en materia de Seguridad Pública (Challenges and Actions in Public Security) by Ernesto Treviño, Juan Salgado, and Angel Kuri. Full-text of these Spanish-language publications is available here.

Middle East

On May 17, 2006, the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies (ICDS, Egypt) hosted a workshop on “Islamic Reformation,” in which participants sought solutions to problems in the Muslim world. The four panels of the workshop focused on the parameters of reform within Islam, the role of Islamist and secular parties in the Arab world, democratization and liberalism within an Islamic context, and the participation of Islamist groups within democratic systems.

In August 2006, the Ibn Khaldun Center published a public opinion survey of 1,700 Egyptians on the recent conflict in Lebanon. The survey found widespread support for Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Commenting on the preliminary figures, ICDS Chairman Saad Eddin Ibrahim argued that “the pattern here is clear, and it is Islamic.” Ibrahim also argued that the “Arab people do not respect the ruling regimes, perceiving them to be autocratic, corrupt, and inept.”

The Center also published the September 2006 Civil Society and Democratization in the Arab World, the Center’s monthly newsletter, which included an analysis of the National Democratic Party’s annual conference, coverage of Yemen’s national elections, and investigation of Jordan’s Islamic Action Front. The issue also includes information about the Center’s activities and news about civil society from the region. The August 2006 Civil Society and Democratization issue features analyses of the summer 2006 Lebanon-Israel War, Arab leaders, and al-Qaeda’s Egyptian ties. Full text of this and previous issues of Civil Society is available here.

The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) added two new policy papers to its publication catalogue. “State, Law, and Halakhah: Part 4- What’s Jewish in Israeli Law?” by Yedidia Z. Stern, presents three possible relationships between traditional Jewish law and modern Israeli law: assimilation, which would transform as many traditional laws into secular law; legal pluralism, which includes allowing community-specific legal systems; and inspiration, which rejects any coercion of the religious aspect of traditional laws. “Men in Black: A Journey to the Wellsprings of Israeli Politics: Haredi Men in the Likud,” by Yohai Hakak, examines the haredi activists in the Likud movement. Ordering information of these Hebrew-language papers (that include English abstracts) is available here.

On September 14, 2006, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) released the twenty-first in its series of Palestinian Public Opinion polls. The poll finds that six months after the establishment of the Hamas government there is “widespread public dissatisfaction with its performance especially in the economic areas of salaries and poverty, as well as in the enforcement of law and order.” The majority of the public therefore supports the formation of a national unity government in which Hamas and Fateh would enjoy equal power. Hamas, however, has not lost popularity, as popularity ratings have remained stable.

On October 6–7, 2006, the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) and the EuroMeSCo held a conference on “Paths to Democracy and Inclusion within Diversity” in Istanbul, where participants discussed democracy, international law, and the use of force in view of the latest developments in the Middle East. Participants also discussed political reform in the Middle East and Southern Mediterranean region, cultural diversity, and freedom of speech. A preliminary conference report and the presentations given by participants are available on the conference’s Web site.

On September 15–16, 2006, TESEV, along with the British Council and the Centre for European Reform organized the third Bosphorus Conference on “EU-Turkey Relations: One Year On - Turkey’s Progress towards the EU.” In a report of key conclusions from the conference, participants agreed that while “technically the Turkish accession is progressing as well as can be expected, politically it is in trouble.” The EU is concerned about Turkey’s slowing reforms and its reluctance to honor commitments it made regarding Cyprus, while Turks are angry that the EU is making difficult and potentially unacceptable demands without being able to guarantee that Turkey will eventually join the Union. Recognizing the growing frustration from both sides, the participants warn that “if current tendencies toward mutual recrimination and incomprehension continue, the accession process may soon stall or even fail.” They also present a list of recommendations for Turkey and the EU to help them move forward in the process.

In June 2006, TESEV published Democracy Assistance Dialogue: Women’s Empowerment in the Broader Middle East and North Africa 2005–2006 Conference Almanac, which is a collection of reports, statements, conclusions, and recommendations from three conferences on women’s empowerment that were organized under the auspices of the Democracy Assistance Dialogue (DAD) which was established at the June 2004 G8 summit. DAD was one of the action plan’s main initiatives adopted within the framework of the “Partnership for Progress and a Common Future” with the countries of the Broader Middle East and North Africa. TESEV and the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs took the organizational responsibility of one of the key initiatives of DAD: empowerment of women.

On September 11, 2006, the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID, United States) published an open letter to U.S. President George Bush in which the signatories asked the president to follow through with his promises to promote democracy in the Middle East and more specifically “to break with 60 years of US support for non-democratic regimes in the region.” Recognizing the administration’s concerns about Islamist parties winning elections in the region, the 105 signatories to the letter argue that “freedom and democracy are the only way to build a world where violence is replaced by peaceful public debate and political participation, and despair is substituted by hope, tolerance and dignity.” Full-text of the letter, as well as the opportunity to become a signatory, is available here.

The October 2006 Muslim Democrat features articles on U.S. democracy-promotion efforts and democracy in Saudi Arabia. It also includes an interview with now-jailed Syrian dissident Kamal Labwani and a report on CSID’s 7th annual conference on “The Challenge of Democracy in the Muslim World.”

CSID’s September 2006 Speaker Series featured a presentation on “Can We Have Arab Democracy without the Islamists,” by Neil Hicks and Amr Hamzawy. Both speakers argued that the Islamist movement is an important feature of politics in the Middle East and stressed the need to distinguish between those movements that want an Islamic democracy and those that exhibit illiberal, authoritarian tendencies. They also stressed the need for reform within the ruling regimes to guarantee human and political rights and suggested the implementation of institutional safeguards that would hold the regimes accountable to the public.

The June-July 2006 issue of Democracy Watch features articles on the silent opposition in Damascus, challenges faced by the new government in Iraq, opposition-regime relations in Egypt, reform in Yemen, and Mauritania ten months after the coup.

Russia and the Former Soviet Union

On September 28–29, 2006, the Carnegie Moscow Center (Russia) celebrated the 10th anniversary of its quarterly journal, Pro et Contra. The activities included a conference on “The Power of Oil and Gas,” which was also the theme of the journal’s summer issue. The latest issue of Pro et Contra is devoted to the theme “Television in Search of Ideology,” which includes articles that evaluate non-political television in Russia today and the attempts “to use the medium to help create new ideological underpinnings for the nation to replace those lost with the collapse of communism.” Full-text of the journal in Russian, as well as English-language abstracts are available here.

The Center’s August 2006 Briefing Paper, “No Peace, Again, Among the Olive Trees,” by Alexey Malashenko, is an examination of the conflict in Lebanon this summer and of the Middle East in general. Malashenko argues that although “peace in the Middle East should not be expected,” there will not be another big war that involves Israel fighting several Arab countries with international involvement on both sides in the region because none of the actors involved are willing to risk an uncertain outcome.

The October 2006 Carnegie Newsletter features articles on Vladamir Putin’s recent live appearance on a Russian television station, Russian-Georgian relations, and the recent murder of prominent journalist Anna Politkovskaia. The monthly newsletter regularly provides the latest news in Russia, as well as brief descriptions of the Center’s activities.

The Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights (Russia) publishes Legislative Process in the State Duma: Human Rights Analysis, a monthly review of the legislative process in the Russian parliament. The October 2006 issue focuses on recent legislation on anti-terrorism measures, including an amendment on the mass media that prohibits the dissemination of materials that “publicly justifies terrorism,” an amendment that enhances the power of the Federal Security Service to monitor private communication without a judicial warrant, and an amendment to the penal code that allows the enforcement of Russian criminal and anti-terrorist legislation against Russian nationals anywhere in the world. The full newsletter is available in Russian and a shorter, English-language version is also available.

The Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DI, Ukraine) published Ukraine's Place in NATO: Expert Survey Result, a 252-page publication that aims “to contribute arguments to the public discussion on what is best for protecting and developing Ukraine’s national interests.” The survey was driven by a public opinion poll that indicated that the population is “largely uninformed about the country's foreign policy priorities.” The survey polled 69 experts to answer the question of why the public’s knowledge of Ukraine’s NATO accession is so limited. The experts were also asked to provide ideas on how Euro-Atlantic ambitions can be communicated in the country. For more information about this publication, please contact Ilko Kucheriv.

United States and Canada

In October 2006, Rights & Democracy (International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, Canada) released a conference report on “Strengthening Democracy in Asia: New Networks and Partnerships for Human Rights and the Rule of Law,” which was held in Toronto, Ontario, on June 14–15, 2006. The conference’s main objective was to “address some of the challenges of democratic governance in the Asia-Pacific region, help develop the effective implementation of human rights through national and regional mechanisms, and strengthen partnerships between Asian and Canadian human rights organizations working to promote human rights and democracy.” The conference report contains summaries of panel discussions on topics that included democratization in Burma, civil society as a catalyst for change, and the future of human rights in Asia, as well as full-text of keynote speeches.

The June/July 2006 issue of Libertas, Rights and Democracy’s electronic newsletter, is a special issue on “Democracy and Human Rights in Asia: Challenges, Trends, and Opportunities” and features articles on the increasing number of NGO’s in Indonesia, the history of student movements in Burma, and the link between human rights and economic development in the Philippines.

On November 14, 2006, the Center for Democracy and Civil Society (CDACS, United States) held an event on “Democracy Promotion through Electoral Revolution: The Postcommunist Experience,” featuring Valerie J. Bunce and Sharon L. Wolchik, the first in its annual Speakers Series lectures. Using their article, “Favorable Conditions and Electoral Revolutions,” which was published in the October 2006 Journal of Democracy, the speakers discussed the favorable domestic and international factors in the electoral revolutions in Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan.

The Center on Democratic Performance (CDP, United States) recently added three papers to its Working Paper series. “Who Mediates?: An Analysis of the Willingness to Offer and Accept Mediation in Civil Wars,” by J. Michael Greig and Patrick M. Regan, is an attempt to answer the question of what it takes to get opposing sides in civil wars to accept an offer by an outside party to mediate the conflict. The authors find that “mediation is more likely to be accepted when the costs to the government for continued fighting is high and when the political unit offering to mediate has had a prior history of mediating that conflict.” A prior colonial history with the country making the offer and an offer to mediate from a multiparty coalition appear to specifically approximate sufficient conditions for the acceptance of mediation.

In “Does Centrism Enhance Electability in SMDP Systems?” Rachel K. Cremona and Michael D. McDonald “develop and test a model of accurate representation of median voters in two-party systems with divergent party Left-Right positions,” with the key conditions of the electorates being deterministic policy choosers and a slow place of policy change. The authors test the model by investigating whether a centrist policy position enhances a party’s electability and “conclude the model largely fails this test, as there is only modest evidence of a connection between centrism and winning.”

In “Policy Dynamics of Conferring the Median Mandate,” Michael D. McDonald “demonstrates how policy outcomes become aligned with median voter preferences in the long run through slow-paced policy responses to short-run median voter partisan choices.”

The Center for the Study of Democracy (United States) recently added several titles to its e-Scholarship Repository. The September 6, 2006 “Issues, Value Cleavages, and Political Change in East Asia,” by Air Rie Lee, examines the relationship between the level of development and the emergence of the “authoritarian-libertarian value cleavage” in East Asia. “In Search of the Unified Nation-State: National Attachment among Distinctive Citizens” (September 1), by Zachary Elkins and John Sides constructs a model of national attachment “with individual- and country-level predictors as well as a set of interaction terms that test whether various country-level factors condition the effect of “distinctiveness” among a country’s “core” population. The authors conclude that distinctive citizens’ attachment to the nation-state decreases as the size of the distinctive population increases.

Other new titles include “The Impact of Party Affect on Voter Sincerity in Open and Closed Electoral Systems" (August 23) by Andrew Drummond; “Political Support, Social Capital, Civil Society, and Political and Economic Performance” (August 22) by Kenneth Newton; “Public Attitudes toward a Market Economy in Vietnam” (August 15) by Pham Minh Hac and Pham Thanh Nghi; “Are Levels of Democracy Influenced by Mass Attitudes? Testing a Central Premise of the Political Culture Approach” (August 1) by Christian Welzel; and “Consolidation of Democracy in Postcommunist Europe” (July 28) by Nina Bandelj and Bogdan Radu.

On October 3, 2006, the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL, United States) and the Shorenstein APARC held a Special Seminar within the Center’s Taiwan Democracy Program that featured Tang Fei, former premier of the Republic of China on Taiwan, in which he discussed the internal conflicts and external challenges Taiwan has faced since the power transition in 2000. A transcript of this event is available here. Information about other recent CDDRL events is available here.

In August 2006, CDDRL Associate Director Kathryn Stoner-Weiss wrote Resisting the State: Reform and Retrenchment in Post-Soviet Russia (Cambridge University Press), in which the author uses interviews with over 800 Russian bureaucrats in 72 of Russia’s 89 provinces to demonstrate that “resistance to Russian central authority is not so much ethnically based (as others have argued) as much as generated by the will of powerful and wealthy regional political and economic actors seeking to protect assets they had acquired through Russia's troubled transition out of communism.” Purchasing information is available here.

On November 1, 2006, the International Forum for Democratic Studies (United States) and the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto held the third annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy on the World, featuring Saad Eddin Ibrahim. The topic of this year’s lecture was “Toward Islamic Democracies.” Audio recording of the event is available here.

The July 2006 Journal of Democracy featured clusters of articles on reforming intelligence and the Palestinian elections, as well as studies of election fraud, corruption, and Muslim democracy, and country studies of South Africa and Nigeria. The October 2006 issue featured a cluster of articles on Latin America, as well as individual articles on electoral revolutions, Pakistan, Belarus, constitutional courts, governance and development, and Arab political pacts. Contents, ordering information, and selected full-text articles are available here.