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V. Priorities
As part of its new planning process, the Endowment will now be preparing a more detailed annual priorities document. This new priorities document will contain a description of Endowment goals in individual regions and countries, accompanied by target figures for Endowment expenditures for the year. In the course of this process, each institute will draw up its own proposed priorities for NED Board review prior to their integration into the overall document. This process will provide an important tool for achieving greater coordination in implementing Board priorities. The brief discussion of priorities here is it I intended to present some of the broader considerations from which concrete budgetary decisions about particular regions or countries will flow.
During the first eight years of its existence, the I Endowment's priorities have shifted with the rapidly changing fortunes of democratic movements around the world. During the early years, the principal focus of democratic activity, and the cutting edge of the incipient democratic revolution, was in Latin America, where approximately' fifty percent of Endowment program funds were, spent. By the end of the 1980s, the focus began to shift to Eastern Europe and then to the Soviet Union. Now China and Africa are attracting in creased funding, and the Middle East (along with the Islamic world generally) looms as a growing challenge.
These shifts in focus and priority do not mean that the Endowment will abandon regions where breakthroughs have occurred. A "breakthrough" does not mean that democracy has been achieved, only that the obstacle of a dictatorial government has been removed. The process of establishing a stable and deeply rooted democratic system is long and arduous, and the economic, political and cultural obstacles can only give way to evolutionary, not revolutionary, change.
The prospect of democratic setbacks is ever-present as change comes more slowly and painfully than anticipated, and frustration and disillusionment build. No one should assume, for example, that democracy is secure in South and Central America or in the previously communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. (Should setbacks occur, work in countries where transition has failed and dictatorship has been re-imposed will assume a high degree of importance Endowment programming.) Moreover, the failure of democracy in these areas could have a devastating "demonstration effect" on the prospects for change in countries that continue to resist the international movement toward democracy.
Conversely, the successful consolidation of democracy would itself have a positive demonstration effect on countries where democratic breakthroughs have not yet been achieved or consolidated. This is particularly important in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, since viable of transition from communism do not yet exist. The Endowment will continue to fund programs ill these countries, (including programs that promote conflict resolution and civic dialogue among diverse ethnic groups), while being prepared to adjust its priorities depending upon the degree of alternative funding available to the institutes and other prospective grantees in particular countries.
Still, given the availability of alternative funding for programs in emerging democracies, the Endowment will seek to expand its programs in those countries and regions where democratic breakthroughs have yet to occur. These include the world's remaining closed societies, especially China, Cuba and Vietnam; and authoritarian systems, especially in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere in the Islamic World, including Indonesia. This shift will take place incrementally so as not to disrupt the overall Endowment program, also taking into account the fact that the ability of those countries to absorb large amounts of resources is limited.
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