Topic Resources

Democracy, State and AID: A Tale of Two Cultures July 10, 2007

(Thomas Carothers): The philosophical differences between USAID and State on democracy aid are of course part of a larger divide. Despite the efforts of a few years back to integrate USAID more closely under State Department authority, the two organizations still live in fairly separate worlds.

Why Export Democracy? July 10, 2007

1999 (G. John Ikenberry): To hear critics tell it, the American preoccupation with promoting democracy around the world is the product of a dangerous idealistic impulse. In his recent book, Diplomacy (1995), Henry Kissinger cautions against this neo-Wilsonian impulse, under which American foreign policy is shaped more by values than by interests.

Applying Conditionality to Development July 10, 2007

2004 (Roland Rich): The announcement on 6 May 2004 by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the 16 countries eligible to receive funding under the Bush Administration’s Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) is a key step in the process of determining the direction of development assistance by applying quantitative international comparators to the governance performance of developing countries.

Democratic Conditionality for Development Assistance? July 10, 2007

2001 (Thomas Carothers): Mr. Thomas Carothers spoke on the topic of whether donor organizations should condition development assistance on the existence of certain fundamental democratic institutions.

Death by Government July 10, 2007

book (R. J. Rummel): Rummel delves into the historical tensions that brought about most of the conflicts that lead to mass exterminations. Many of us may know nothing beyond the basics about Stalin's Great Terror or Hitler's Holocaust. What's frightening to realize as you read this book is how the demagoguery that lead to these mass murder incidents is not all that far removed from what we hear from some of our own politicians today.

Promoting Real Democracy July 10, 2007

2000 (Larry Diamond): In the last quarter-century, the number of democracies in the world has nearly tripled, from 40 to 117. This should be good news, but there's a catch: Many of these regimes are illiberal democracies.

Bush's Middle East Vision July 10, 2007

2003 (Phillip Gordon): Many Europeans are frustrated with, if not baffled by, the Bush administration’s approach to the Middle East.

Democratic Impulses July 10, 2007

2003 (Ray Takeyh and Nikolas K. Gvosdev): It has long been an axiom among Western scholars and politicians alike that democracies make the United States’ most stable and viable partners.

The Problem of U.S. Credibility July 10, 2007

2003 ( Marina S. Ottaway): In this paper, Marina Ottaway highlights a problem of fundamental significance—the lack of credibility that the United States has in the Arab world when it presents itself as a pro-democratic actor.

The trouble with Democracy in the Middle East July 10, 2007

2003 (Patrick Basham and Christopher Preble): In his recent speech before the National Endowment for Democracy, President Bush pledged that the United States would embark on a decades-long commitment to bring democracy to the Middle East. But democracy is not a gift President Bush can bestow on people in distant lands.

Is Gradualism Possible? July 10, 2007

2003 (Thomas Carothers): As part of the changed U.S. geo-strategic outlook arising from the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States, the Bush administration is giving greatly heightened attention to the issue of promoting democracy in the Middle East.

Loose Cannon: The NED July 10, 2007

1993 (Barbara Conry): The National Endowment for Democracy is a foreign policy loose cannon. Promoting democracy is a nebulous objective that can be manipulated to justify any whim of the special-interest groups. As those groups execute their own foreign policies, they often work against American interests and meddle needlessly in the affairs of other countries, undermining the democratic movements NED was designed to assist.

An Important Weapon in the War of Ideas July 10, 2007

1993 (James Phillips): The historical record shows that democracies rarely go to war against each other. While the U.S. need not embark on an open-ended crusade for democracy, it should promote democratic institutions in the former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and other places where it is in the U.S. interest to do so.

Time to Come Ashore July 10, 2007

(Charles Krauthammer): Let me start by reflecting on a few things that were said earlier. (1) One was about bringing the evidence to legitimize and justify the war. There is one thing that I think everybody has overlooked--we are going to have retroactive evidence. Even though I would like us to be able to have a smoking gun, I don’t know how close we are going to come to producing it when the President decides that it is time

Promoting Democracy in the Middle East July 10, 2007

2003 (Thomas Carothers & Marina Ottoway): The United States faces no greater challenge today than successfully fulfilling its new ambition of helping bring about a democratic transformation of the Middle East.

Hard Lessons for Arab Democracy July 10, 2007

2003 (Thomas Carothers): Earlier this month President Bush eloquently articulated a vision of a U.S. Middle East policy centered around the promotion of democracy. A potent new mix of U.S. interests, above all the administration's belief that only positive political change in the Arab world can eliminate the roots of radical Islamic terrorism, has overcome the president's skepticism about neo-Wilsonian ventures.

Is Civil Society the Answer? July 10, 2007

2004 (Ann Hawthorne): The idea that with sufficient outside support, civil society organizations can democratize authoritarian regimes "from below" is an article of faith among many policy makers and democracy promoters.

Ideas of the Week:Democracy July 10, 2007

2002 (Democratic Leaderships Council): We regret that we have to actually make the argument that support for democracy needs to be the touchstone of U.S. foreign policy, but it seems appropriate after a week in which the Bush Administration...

Terrorism's Uncertain Antidote July 10, 2007

2003 (Thomas Carothers):The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, threw into serious question a long-standing tenet of US policy toward the Middle East: the assumption that nondemocratic, pro-Western regimes such as those in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait are bulwarks against Islamic radicalism.

Does Democracy Cause Peace? July 09, 2007

1998 (James Lee Ray): The idea that democratic states have not fought and are not likely to fight interstate wars against each other runs counter to the realist and neo-realist theoretical traditions that have dominated the field of international politics.

Democracy, Human Rights, and the War on Terrorism July 09, 2007

2002 ( Martha Brill Olcott): Since the attacks of September 11, and the emergence of a U.S. security partnership with several of the states of the Central Asian region, there has been lots of speculation about what this means for the prospects of democratic reform in all five of these countries.

Democratic Impulses July 09, 2007

2003 (Ray Takeyh and Nikolas K. Gvosdev): It has long been an axiom among Western scholars and politicians alike that democracies make the United States’ most stable and viable partners.

Democracy, Development, and Mass Killings July 09, 2007

2005 (Roberta Gatti & Sergio Kurlat): This study examines the relationship between the occurrence and cruelty of episodes of mass killing and the levels of development and democracy across countries and over time. We find that massacres are more likely at intermediate levels of income and less likely at very high levels of democracy, but we do not find evidence of a linear relationship between democracy and probability of mass killings.

State- & democracy-building in Sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Somaliland - a comparative perspective. May 21, 2007

2004 [Global Jurist Frontiers]: This paper presents an overview of the trajectory of the State and Democracy system in Somaliland (former Northwest region of Somalia).

Violence, Political Culture, and Development in Africa April 24, 2007

2006 [Development Gateway]: Africa has witnessed a number of transitions to democracy in recent years. Coinciding with this upsurge in democratic transitions have been spectacular experiences of social disintegration.

Education, Democracy, and Political Development in Africa April 09, 2007

1997 [Clive Harber]: For most of the post-independence period African states have been ruled by one-party and military regimes. Writers on political development theory came to see this as inevitable.

Authoritarian Rule and Democracy in Africa April 05, 2007

1991 [United Nations]: Economic reform and liberal democracy have emerged as the dominant ideas shaping the political and economic structures of countries in the last two decades of the twentieth century.

The Path to Cultural Democracy in Africa April 05, 2007

2005: When we study African cultures, we learn that that there is no native expression for either the word "democracy" or the word "dictator."

Democratic Governance and New Democracy in Africa April 05, 2007

2002: Hardly ten years after independence Africa experienced a continuing and deepening crisis of democracy.

Democracy and Human Development April 05, 2007

2007 [US State Department]: Africa

Foundation for Democracy in Africa April 05, 2007

2007 [The Foundation for Democracy in Africa]: Website

AIDS: A Threat to Democracy April 05, 2007

2000 [News Source]: THE CIA has warned that the HIV/Aids pandemic sweeping sub-Saharan Africa will lay waste to the ruling political and military elite in the region, provoking damaging power struggles over scarce state resources.

Violence, Political Culture, and Development in Africa April 05, 2007

2006 [Development Gateway]: Africa has witnessed a number of transitions to democracy in recent years.