Confronting the Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century
Second World Assembly
November 12-15, 2000
São Paulo, Brazil
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Fernando Henrique Cardoso
President of Brazil
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Regional Workshops - New Independent States
Organizer:
National Endowment for Democracy (U.S.)
Rapporteur:
Ghia Nodia (Georgia)
Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development
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Moderator:
Nadia Diuk (U.S.)
National Endowment for Democracy
Presenters:
Andrei Blinushov (Russia)
Ryazan Regional Branch of Memorial Society
Alexei Simonov (Russia)
Glasnost Defense Foundation
Marcin Walecki (Poland)
National Democratic Institute/Transparency International - Poland
Evgeny Zhovtis (Kazakhstan)
Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law
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Observations:
Whether the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union (NIS) may still be considered a single region-and, if so, of what exactly it is composed-was itself an issue at this workshop. For instance, the participants from Belarus and some Georgians chose to attend the Central and Eastern Europe regional workshop. An Azerbaijani participant remarked that his organization preferred to network with southern and central European, rather than Russian, NGOs because they wanted to learn from successful examples, while a Russian participant said bluntly that unifying the NIS countries meant reviving the past. On the other hand, a Mongolian participant attended this workshop saying that she believed that the problems in her country made it more similar to NIS countries than to other Asian countries.
Participants identified one feature that most if not all post-Soviet countries have in common: recent experience of "backsliding" regarding democratic reforms. A Russian participant said that his country had never made a clear choice in favor of democracy anyway, and that this probably applies to other post-Soviet countries as well. In recent years, governments in the NIS region have in fact tended to become more authoritarian, with less free-and-fair elections, infringed media freedoms, and harassment of democratic activists. One explanation that was proposed is President Vladimir Putin's ascension to power in Russia, which rulers of other countries in the region have perceived as a signal to become more authoritarian. Remaining under some degree of Russian influence is another feature that all of these countries have in common.
Participants found it difficult to identify a common denominator concerning the specific challenges civil societies confront. For instance, when a Polish presenter urged NGOs in the region to cooperate closely with political parties, participants from Azerbaijan responded by saying that in their country some parties and NGOs are almost the same, and that they already cooperate closely. An Uzbek participant said that her organization would love to cooperate with parties if any were in existence, while some Russians remarked that NGOs should steer clear of political parties to keep their reputation clean.
Challenges and Recommendations:
Challenge: Building coalitions in the face of authoritarian "backsliding." With some self-criticism, participants said that the efforts of the NGO sector in general are uncoordinated, that organizations do not know about each other's work, and that attempts at coalition building had thus far been unsuccessful. One of the reasons cited is the competition for grants among NGOs struggling for survival.
Recommendations:
- Set up broad but soft coalitions of democracy-promotion NGOs to resist authoritarian backsliding by making assessments of government actions and publicizing them.
- Create more targeted and professional coalitions around very specific tasks and agendas.
- Use the Internet more broadly for facilitating cooperation and networking among NGOs.
The World Movement Secretariat has created a section of its Web site to provide information on organizations working to promote democracy in New Independent States, as well as on research and funding sources.
Challenge: Developing donors' funding patterns to encourage greater nongovernmental coordination.
Recommendations:
Donors should . . .
- coordinate their efforts with each other;
- give preference to cooperative projects;
- give priority to developing the NGO infrastructure rather than to individual projects;
- organize NGO conferences to discuss common problems; and
- discourage networking just for the sake of networking.
Challenge: Developing cooperation between NGOs and political parties. Those who favored such cooperation argued that political parties are a necessary condition of democratic order and that it is in the best interests of NGOs to strengthen them. Under current circumstances, NGOs cannot afford to stay out of politics, and they should therefore actively promote specific legislation and institutional reforms; this is difficult to do without cooperating with political parties.
Recommendations:
NGOs should . . .
- recognize the current weakness of political parties and promote the idea that they are necessary for democracy;
- help political parties with research and (since NGOs can influence party agendas) help them draft program documents;
- serve as an "interface" to promote cooperation between political parties, on the one hand, and trade unions and business organizations, on the other;
- help parties by educating their rank-and-file members;
- encourage women's participation in politics;
- promote reform of laws on political parties in Russia where there is no legal distinction between parties and public associations;
- exploit the interest of parties in NGOs during pre-election periods to promote the NGO agenda; and
- cooperate with political parties on educational projects since education is an objective that both NGOs and parties have in common; such cooperation will thus attract greater attention from political parties to NGOs.
Challenge: Developing ties between NGOs and local business as an additional opportunity for coalition building. Though this subject did not receive a great deal of attention during the workshop, some participants noted that there are prospects for such cooperation in Russia.
Challenge: Strengthening civic education as a priority of the NGO community.
Recommendations:
NGOs should . . .
- concentrate on educating a new generation;
- concentrate on the grass-roots; raise awareness of legislation, human rights, and the tools of civil society activism in small localities;
- concentrate on using the Internet as a tool for building awareness in the population since the mainstream media is, for the most part, owned by political and economic interests; and
- devote efforts to voter education and education against corruption.
Other Recommendations:
- Promote cross-border cooperation among local NGOs.
- Create a list of Internet resources that provide truthful information about situations in NIS countries.
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