Network of Democracy Research Institutes
Member Institutes
The institutional profiles below provide contact information, program descriptions, and research and publication highlights for current members of the Network. Most institutions provide more detailed information, including full texts of selected publications, on their own Web sites. Unless otherwise noted, all Network member Web sites listed herein contain information in English.
United States and Canada
Center for Democracy and Civil Society
Contact: Barak D. Hoffman, director
Center for the Democracy and Civil Society
Georgetown University
3240 Prospect Street, NW, Lower Level
Washington, D.C. 20007 USA
Phone: +1-202-687-0593
Fax: +1-202-687-0597
cdacs@georgetown.edu
www8.georgetown.edu/centers/cdacs/
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Mission:
The Center for Democracy and Civil Society seeks to advance research, teaching, and the dissemination of ideas about relationships between democracy and the third sector. For purposes of its mission, the Center understands "democracy" to include all institutions and mechanisms that enable collective self-governance. The "third sector" encompasses those parts of civil society that are neither government nor business, including associations, nongovernmental organizations, nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, citizen groups, social movements, as well as the cultures, norms, and social values that enable these social phenomena. Through its programs, the Center aspires to merge robust theoretical perspectives with rigorous empirical methodologies, to combine domestic and international research and teaching agendas, and to bring together scholars and students from diverse national backgrounds and academic disciplines.
Activities include:
- The Center for Democracy and Civil Society sponsors numerous events and conducts extensive research on democracy and the third sector.
Publication Information: For a list of publications and conference reports, please visit the CDACS Web site.
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Center for the Study of Democracy
Contact: Bernard Grofman, director
Center for the Study of Democracy
University of California at Irvine
3151 Social Science Plaza
Irvine, CA 92697-5100, USA
Phone: +1-949-824-2904
Fax: +1-949-824-8762
csd@uci.edu
www.democ.uci.edu
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Mission:
The Center for the Study of Democracy is an organized research unit at the University of California, Irvine. The Center sponsors research and education aimed at improving the democratic process in the United States and expanding democracy around the world. The Center's research activities focus on four areas: Democracy-21, a research program aimed at improving the democratic process in the United States and other established democracies; the New Democracies Initiative, focusing on the promotion of democracy in formerly authoritarian systems; a program examining the role of social movements as a form of political expression; and a research area evaluating the intersection of race, ethnicity, and democratic politics.
Activities include:
- hosting research conferences on such themes as electoral systems and minority representation, the impact of social movements on government policy making, the comparison of corporate and political governance, and democratic institutional reform
- sponsoring faculty research and hosting the annual Peltason Lecture on Democracy, a lectureship that brings leading politicians and experts on democracy for a temporary residence at the Center
- publishing a research paper series and a newsletter
- facilitating research and teaching on democratic themes and sponsoring a graduate training program on democracy
- hosting a virtual library on democracy with an online archives of social science data; an index to government websites around the globe; links to other research institutes; information on political parties and electoral systems; and documents on democracy
Publication Information: Please visit CSD's Web site for a list of recent publications.
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Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL)
Contact: Michael McFaul, director;
CDDRL
616 Serra Street, C139a
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6055, USA
Phone: +1-650-724-7197
Fax: +1-650-724-2996
audrey.mcgowan@stanford.edu
http://cddrl.stanford.edu
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Mission:
The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) of Stanford University's Institute for International Studies seeks to promote innovative and practical research to assist developing countries and transitioning societies in the design and implementation of policies to foster democracy, to promote balanced and sustainable growth, and to advance the rule of law. Scholars affiliated with CDDRL explore how best to harmonize the pursuit of each of these goals in the interest of helping to produce states and societies that are freer, richer, more law-abiding, and more transparent.
The Center also supports specialized teaching, training, and outreach activities to assist countries struggling with problems of political, economic, and judicial reform; constitutional design; economic performance; and corruption to improve their prospects for success. It manages four distinct programs on Democracy, Economic Performance, Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law.
Activities include:
- conducting and publishing research
- organizing and sponsoring conferences and workshops
- supporting specialized teaching and training activities
Publication Information: For a list of recent publications, please visit cddrl.stanford.edu/publications/.
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Center on Democratic Performance (CDP)
Contact: Michael D. McDonald, director
Department of Political Science
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA
Phone: +1-607-761-4933
Fax: +1-607-777-2675
cdp@binghamton.edu
cdp.binghamton.edu
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Mission:
The Center on Democratic Performance, a research center of Binghamton University, was established to assist both the academic and policy communities in understanding the functioning and performance of democratic political institutions. In particular, the Center encourages the application of academic research findings to programmatic development and implementation. The Center's June 2001 Conference on Democratic Performance resulted in a forthcoming book that was published by Praeger in 2002. A related area of interest of the Center is the emerging international norms/standards field regarding the functioning of democratic institutions.
Activities include:
- conducting research on the effectiveness of such democratic institutions as parliaments, political parties, and judiciaries
- organizing conferences and seminars on issues of democracy, including civil-military relations and democracy and public opinion
- collecting and disseminating information about democratic practices around the world
- providing consultation services on global democratic development
- creating and maintaining a database of key variables affecting democracy
Publication Information: Please visit CDP's Web site for a list of recent publications.
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International Forum for Democratic Studies
Contact: Marc F. Plattner, codirector;
Larry Diamond, codirector;
Diego Abente, deputy director
Melissa Aten, research and conferences officer
1025 F Street, N.W. Suite 800
Washington, D.C. 20004, USA
Phone: +1-202-378-9700
Fax: +1-202-378-9407
ndri@ned.org
www.ned.org/forum/internationalforum.html
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Mission:
The International Forum for Democratic Studies was established in 1994 as the research arm of the National Endowment for Democracy. Through its publications, conferences, and other activities, the Forum has become a leading center for analyzing and discussing the theory and practice of democracy. It also serves as a clearinghouse for information on the varied activities and experiences of groups working to achieve and maintain democracy in many parts of the world.
Activities include:
- publishing the Journal of Democracy, a quarterly journal devoted to the theory and practice of democracy
- organizing conferences, seminars, and colloquia in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere on the worldwide challenges of democratic transition and consolidation
- maintaining a Democracy Resource Center (including a library, publications archive, and Web site) that collects, organizes, and disseminates information and analysis produced by a wide range of organizations working to strengthen democracy around the world
- sponsoring the Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program that enables scholars, journalists, and practitioners of democracy to spend from three to ten months in residence at the Forum developing new contacts, conducting research, and writing for publication
- organizing, in partnership with the Sejong Institute of Korea, the Democracy Forum for East Asia (1998–2002), a series of meetings and conferences for elected officials, political party and nongovernmental organization leaders, and scholars on the practical problems of consolidating democracy in a number of important Asian countries
Publication Information: Please visit www.ned.org/publications/publications.html for a list of Forum publications.
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Rights & Democracy- International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (ICHRDD)
Contact: Jean-Paul Hubert, interim president;
1001 de Maisonneuve Blvd. East, Suite 1100
Montréal, Québec H2L 4P9 CANADA
Phone: +1-514-283-6073
Fax: +1-514-283-3792
dd-rd@dd-rd.ca
http://www.dd-rd.ca
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Mission:
Rights & Democracy (International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development) is an independent organization that promotes, advocates, and defends the democratic and human rights set out in the International Bill of Human Rights.
In cooperation with civil society and governments in Canada and abroad, the Centre initiates and supports programs to strengthen laws and democratic institutions, principally in developing countries. Although its mandate is global, the Centre's programming focuses on four thematic priorities: democratic development, women's human rights, globalization and human rights, and indigenous peoples' rights.
Activities include:
- providing political, financial, and technical support to many front-line human rights and indigenous peoples' groups and to democratic movements around the world
- advocating policy changes in national and international institutions, and strengthening the capacity of its partners to do the same
- assisting the efforts of NGOs to gain access to multilateral institutions
- working to mainstream women's rights in human rights mechanisms
- bringing together members of civil society and the state from different countries to discuss fundamental human rights and democratic development issues
- building public awareness in Canada and abroad of human rights violations
- sponsoring research, publications, conferences, missions of enquiry, and other public events
Publication Information: A complete list of publications is available at www.dd-rd.ca/site/publications/index.php?lang=en.
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