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National Endowment for Democracy     News and Information     Spring 1999 Newsletter
Inside This Issue



NED Grantees Monitor Nigerian Elections

Nigeria's presidential elections on Feb. 27 marked a critical step forward in that country's transition to democracy. The entire Endowment family was involved in assisting the process, and remains committed to further engagement. Former president Jimmy Carter called the Nigerian elections "the most important that will be held in the world this year." A meeting sponsored by NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies (Forum) and the African Studies Program of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) addressed those elections on March 18.

More than 100 observers from the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), in partnership with the Carter Center, monitored the presidential round of elections. Smaller groups from both institutes had monitored the previous rounds, beginning with local contests on Dec. 5, 1998, and including gubernatorial elections on Jan. 9 and legislative elections on Feb. 20.

During the presidential elections in particular, however, IRI and NDI noted serious irregularities, including ballot box stuffing and a lack of secrecy.

Nevertheless, as the IRI delegation leader, Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) said, "The story here is the end of military rule in Africa's most populous nation. This transition is critical for the stability and democratization of the region. In order for Nigeria to join the family of democratic nations, a new government must take office peaceably and govern in a transparent, responsive manner."

NED's business and labor core grantees have also been active in Nigeria. The American Center for International Labor Solidarity's (ACILS) support to Nigerian trade unions enabled the unions to be active in the monitoring process; ACILS has maintained an office in Nigeria for several years. The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) has worked for several years with the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (NACCIMA) and more recently the Center for Public-Private Cooperation on vital economic reform issues.

NED-supported NGO Coalition Plays Important Role in Monitoring Process NED also made grants to 24 Nigerian NGOs that played an important role in Nigeria's painful struggle from military dictatorship to democracy. Many of these groups worked together as part of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), an indigenous coalition that deployed more than 10,000 Nigerian election observers throughout the country. Experts at the March 18 conference agreed that while the Nigerian elections were far from perfect, the exceptional work of the TMG gives reason to hope for the continuing transition to democracy. "The one bright spot was the fact that the TMG came together and under very difficult circumstances, really came through," said the Carter Center's Robert LaGamma at the SAIS/Forum meeting. LaGamma, who addressed attendees at the March 18 event, participated in Nigeria's election monitoring process. Other Endowment grantees worked to strengthen the Nigerian media, conducted conflict resolution training, monitored human rights issues, provided civic education, and generated greater public dialogue about the transition.

TMG Leader Addresses Conference Clement Nwankwo, the TMG leader, addressed Nigeria's prospects for democracy at the March 18 meeting. Nwankwo said Nigeria's civil society must be very serious about determining their role in the next regime. "If a civilian government should fail," said Nwankwo, "the TMG wants to ensure that the alternative is not military rule, and that the government will be held accountable." Nwankwo is a prominent democracy activist who was one of the founders of Nigeria's Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) and now serves as the director of the Constitutional Rights Project (CRP); both organizations are longtime NED grantees.

During the meeting's question and answer period, Journal of Democracy Co-Editor and Forum Co-Director Larry Diamond said Nigeria's endemic corruption is one of the main reasons for the country's election fraud. Diamond said there is a narrow window of time for action whereby Nigeria can develop the mechanisms of accountability that are necessary for a successful democracy, and that "we need to let General Obasanjo know that we will not bail them out unless they take such steps."

NED to present Democracy Award to TMG On May 25,1999 the Endowment will present its annual democracy award to the TMG, in recognition of their commendable efforts to mobilize Nigerian civil society to ensure free and fair elections. The award, which will be accepted by Nwankwo at a Capitol Hill ceremony, "pays tribute not only to the heroic work done by the democracy movement in Nigeria to date, but recognizes the significant work that lies ahead if a true transition to democracy is to be achieved," said NED President Carl Gershman.

"Nigeria's transition to democracy is far from complete, but the country has come a long way since the repressive political environment that threatened to explode less than a year ago," said Senior Program Officer for Africa Dave Peterson. "The greater respect for human rights and the gradual reconstruction of democratic institutions in Nigeria owes much to the courageous Nigerian activists with whom it has been the privilege of the Endowment to work."
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Chairman's Message

John Brademas, NED Chairman
Democracy has made tremendous advances over the past century. More than half the world's 190 countries have adopted representative forms of government.

Now the challenge is to consolidate democracy's gains and ensure its spread to countries still under authoritarian regimes.

To address this challenge, some 400 democratic activists, scholars of democracy and political leaders from over 85 countries gathered recently in New Delhi for the inaugural Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy, a meeting co-sponsored by NED and two leading non-governmental organizations in India, the Confederation of Indian Industry, and the Centre for Policy Research. Project Director for the Assembly was Gautam Adhikari, former editor of "The Times of India," and currently a NED fellow.

Participants in the New Delhi Assembly shared the conviction that democracy is not bound by a particular culture or socioeconomic condition.

Indeed, in an eloquent opening address, the distinguished Nobel Laureate (Economics, 1998) Professor Amartya Sen, made the case for "democracy as a universal value." He sharply rejected the monolithic interpretation of "Asian values" as hostile to democracy and political rights as an argument used to defend authoritarianism and one, he said, that "does not bear critical scrutiny."

Declared Professor Sen, ". . . From the great variety of developments that have occurred in the 20th century, I did not . . . have any difficulty in choosing one as the pre-eminent development: the rise of democracy."

The Master of Trinity College, Cambridge University, then spoke of the success of representative government in his native India, the world's largest democracy, where "political differences have been largely tackled within the constitutional [framework], and governments have risen and fallen according to electoral and parliamentary rules."

Professor Sen also poured cold water on the view of such leaders as Singapore's former President Lee Kuan Yew that democracy is harmful to economic expansion. In fact, said the eminent economist, there is overwhelming evidence to show that what is needed for generating faster economic growth is a friendlier economic climate, rather than a harsher political system.

Finally, Professor Sen branded as "fallacious" the contention that poor people do not care about democracy or civil and political rights but only about bread. "People in economic need also need a political voice. Democracy is not a luxury that can await the arrival of general prosperity."

Stephen S. Rosenfeld, the respected Washington Post observer, effectively summed up the raison d'être of our assembly in New Delhi: "It was a felicitous stroke for the National Endowment for Democracy to recruit Amartya Sen as the herald of its attempt to put achieved and aspiring democrats in closer touch with one another. The Internet makes the mechanics of it easy. The wisdom of the man illuminates the core idea: Democracy is Universal."


John Brademas
Chairman

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Conference Launches World Movement for Democracy

More than 400 Endorse International Democracy Network

More than 400 activists and other champions of democracy from more than 80 countries gathered in New Delhi, India, Feb. 14-17 to launch the first worldwide effort to coordinate the promotion of democracy. Participants of the unprecedented assembly agreed on the creation of an international network of democrats, the World Movement for Democracy. At the conclusion of the conference, attendees had drafted and agreed on a founding statement for the newly-formed network of democrats (a copy can be found on the NED home page www.ned.org/india/stmnt.html).

The international conference was initiated by NED, and cosponsored by India's Confederation of Indian Industry and the Centre for Policy Research. "The World Movement is the culmination of a long-term strategic plan by the Endowment to make the most of its resources by fostering greater coordination among all those involved in the promotion of democracy," said NED President Carl Gershman.

Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen delivered a thought-provoking conference keynote address on Feb. 14, entitled "Democracy as a Universal Value." "Throughout the nineteenth century, theorists of democracy found it quite natural to discuss whether one country or another was yet ‘fit for democracy,'" said Sen. "That changed only in the twentieth century, with the recognition that the question itself was wrong: a country does not have to be judged to be fit for democracy, rather it has to become fit through democracy."

Sen argued against the concept that countries in need of rapid development, or those with non-Western cultures, were somehow not suitable for democracy.

Gujral, Robinson Speak at Conference

Activists, scholars, business leaders, parliamentarians and many others from more than 80 countries assembled to consider the future of the Movement. Speakers and participants also included former Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, former Indian Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, and Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh. Four U.S. congressmen also attended the international conference, including Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), Rep. James McDermott (D-Wash.), Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas).

U.S. President Bill Clinton and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee sent videotaped messages which were played for participants, and 15 other heads of state sent letters of greeting, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, French President Jacques Chirac, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

A wide variety of workshops were offered for participants which were considered the most valuable and productive part of the conference. Workshops included Democracy and NGOs: Advocacy and Coalition-Building; Political Parties and Democracy: Reform and Renewal; Policy Research Institutes and Democracy; The Impact of Globalization on Labor and the Democracy Movement; Civic Education and Democracy; New Communications Technologies as Tools for Democracy-Building; Democracy Assistance Foundations: Expanding the Network; Democracy and Market Institutions; and Transparency and Accountability: Fighting Corruption.

Adoption of the founding document, accepted by conference participants on Feb. 17, was an object lesson in democratic decision making. Conference participants spent hours debating the purpose, name and future activities of the Movement.

"The goal of the World Movement for Democracy is not to create a new centralized organization that will make decisions on its own," reads the Founding Document. "Indeed, the Movement is not an organization as such. Rather, it is a proactive network of democrats that will meet periodically (not less than once every two years) to exchange ideas and experiences and to foster collaboration among democratic forces around the world."

Conference organizers received a great deal of positive feedback about the global and historic event. "This opens many doors for future cooperation and helps you understand that despite the enormous political and cultural differences there are many, many citizens all around the world working for one goal: Democracy," said Elisabeth Ungar, Colombia. "This joint venture must make the dream become true."

Nimi Walson-Jack of the Centre for Responsive Politics, Nigeria, said, "What a great feeling to wake up and realize that we have just made history. The ball of history is not in our courts. The responsibility of supporting democracy in our communities rests on our shoulders. The duty could be lighter if we exchange ideas and information, share resources, and take advantage of modern telecommunications."

A steering committee is being formed to determine the next steps for the Movement. For additional information, contact world@ned.org.

NED would like to thank the following conference sponsors:
    The Starr Foundation
    The Smith Richardson Foundation
    The Ford Foundation
    CIVITAS
    Freedom House
    The Holdeen India Fund
    Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd.
    American International Group (AIG)
    Tata Steel
    The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor
    The Indian Government's Ministry of External Affairs.
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NED Grantees Help Protect Journalists, Improve Civil-Military Relations in Peru


Peru, like some of its Latin America counterparts, has in recent years experienced a narrowing of political space and the erosion of democratic rights and institutions. In line with NED's program priorities for that region and to address these disturbing trends, the Endowment approved two new Peru-based grants in January.

Since its transition to democracy in 1980, Peru has had three consecutive civilian presidents. However, Peru's 19-year-old democracy has been plagued by a tenuous relationship between the civil government and the military and an escalating attack on freedom of expression and press freedoms.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the media is considered the institution that most inspires the Peruvian public's confidence. However, over the past five years journalists who have been critical of the government have been threatened, and even murdered. In 1997, television station owner Baruch Ivcher and one of the journalists employed by Ivcher's station were forced into exile after running a series of reports critical of the government. More recently, independent journalists who have been critical of the government have been accused of being terrorists, traitors, and Ecuadoran agents. The accusations are thought to be coordinated and supported by the state.

Forty cases of abuses against journalists in Peru were reported in 1997 according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. This information was made available in part thanks to a new national network to protect journalists, which is now being developed by the Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) with support from NED. The network will establish a system of communications throughout Peru that will permit a journalist who is in trouble to request assistance from the central office in Lima. The IPYS network will alert national and international groups in an effort to mobilize attention and support for cases of abuse against journalists and, if necessary, provide legal assistance to victims.

"Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of democracy, and IPYS is at the cutting edge of defending freedom of expression in Peru," said Santiago Canton, Special Rapporteur of Freedom of Expression in the Americas for the Organization of American States and member of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. "Thanks to the work of IPYS, this office has been able to inform the government of Peru about violations of freedom of expression that are taking place. In one particular instance, the IPYS helped to get a radio host released from prison."

Improving Peru's Civil-Military Relations

Although Peru has been a democracy since 1980, the relationship between the government and the military has been an ambiguous one. The previous two government administrations attempted to control the armed forces by building alliances with individual officers and appointing political allies to key positions in the military hierarchy. This political favoritism has resulted in widespread resentment and factionalism in Peru's military. In fact, recent events in Peru indicate that President Fujimori's control over his allies in the armed forces is negligible at best.

The Instituto de Estudios Politicos y Estrategicos (IDEPE), with NED support, is working to promote and improve the relationship between the military and the government. IDEPE trains civilian leaders in military and strategic issues and conducts classes at military academies for officers on democracy and human rights. In addition, courses are offered for civilians who work on military and security issues in congress, the executive branch and political parties. Topics include national defense planning, defense budgeting, crisis management, strategy development, models of the military organization in the modern state, and narcotrafficking.

President Fujimori is now looking at a possible third term in 2000 – a term that would be unconstitutional under current Peruvian law. Given the concentration of authority that has occurred under Fujimori and the current state of civil-military relations and press freedom, the future of Peruvian democracy remains uncertain.
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Work of NED Highlighted on Capitol Hill

Chinese Human Rights and Former Yugoslavia Situations Discussed

NED grantees working in China and the former Yugoslavia were highlighted on Capitol Hill in December and January as legislators addressed the recent crackdown on activists in China and the conflict in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). NED Program Officers Louisa Coan and Paul McCarthy highlighted the efforts of NED grantees to promote human rights, civic education, and democracy in those countries.

McCarthy, NED Program Officer for Central and Eastern Europe, highlighted the work of the Endowment's grantees in the FRY at a hearing before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe on Dec. 10, 1998. During the wars of Yugoslav succession and the U.N. embargo, NED was one of the few Western organizations to make grants in the FRY and to work with local NGOs and independent media throughout the country.

Prior to recent NATO action in the FRY, NED programs helped ensure the survival of a number of independent media and helped break the stranglehold of government-dominated media in Serbia by strengthening influential sources of objective information. McCarthy highlighted past grantees including the newspapers Nasa Borba, Vreme, and Danas, an independent TV station in eastern Serbia, TV Negotin, the prominent news agency, BETA, and the important Belgrade station, Radio B-92. Since the NATO action began, the Milosevic regime has accelerated its crackdown on the independent media sector in Serbia. Radio B-92 has been closed down by the government and many of the remaining media are under strict regime censorship. Prominent journalist, Slavko Curuvija, editor of the Daily Telegraf, was shot and killed April 11 (see sidebar story).

McCarthy also highlighted prominent NED grantees in Serbia and Montenegro. The NED-funded Humanitarian Law Center (Serbia) monitored the human rights situation in the province, and investigated and documented cases of human rights abuse, and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia provided assistance to individuals who were the victims of human rights abuses. McCarthy said NED assistance helped Montenegro's only independent daily newspaper continue providing timely and objective information on political, cultural, and economic developments in the republic and throughout the FRY.

Based on available evidence, civil society has been virtually eliminated in Kosovo by rampaging Serb forces. Koha Ditore, the prominent Albanian-language daily newspaper in Prishtina, was closed down by authorities and its building destroyed in late March. The newspaper's publisher, Veton Surroi, who was a member of the Kosovar Albanian negotiating team in Rambouillet and Paris, has reportedly gone into hiding in the devastated province. As circumstances permit, the Endowment will continue to provide support to pro-democratic elements in the FRY, despite the current difficult situation.

NED Grantees Continue to Address Human Rights in China

Coan, NED Senior Program Officer for Asia, testified before the House Committee on International Relations on Jan. 20 on the widely publicized crackdown in China in December 1998. "High levels of repression of political speech, non-state-approved religious worship, and all forms of independent organizing have persisted throughout China's ‘reform' era since Deng Xiaoping's ascendency to power in 1978," said Coan.

Following a period of growing open political space in China in early 1998, dubbed "Beijing Spring," the Chinese government cracked down on dissent in December 1998, throwing many dissidents in jail, most of them without a fair trial. Coan noted that even the so-called "Beijing Spring" was selective and limited, and from its beginning, conditional. "The flowering of intellectual give and take in the world of arts and publishing was an effort on the part of the individuals involved, who had no control over when government and party officials would decide to reimpose traditional forms of intimidation and abuse," she said.

Coan highlighted the work of a variety of NED grantees, whose programs are carried out through collaboration among Chinese human rights advocates in China and in exile. The New York–based group, Human Rights in China, a NED grantee and one of the most frequently cited sources of information on human rights in China, monitors the implementation of international human rights standards in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and carries out human rights advocacy and education among Chinese people inside and outside the country. The Laogai Research Foundation, directed by human rights activist Harry Wu, has brought international attention to several areas of human rights abuse in China's forced labor prison system, the laogai. The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, also a NED grantee, has emerged as an important center for monitoring and reporting on human rights in Tibet.

NED provides humanitarian support to the families of political prisoners, as well as funds for travel, communications, and legal aid. Groups such as NED grantee The Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, produce materials in Chinese and Tibetan that enable citizens of the PRC to understand better their rights under both international and Chinese law. Coan mentioned work by China News Digest, VIP Reference, and Press Freedom Guardian, NED grantees that promote the free flow of information in China.

She emphasized the need for additional resources to continue and to expand this type of work as well as to encourage practical dialogues on pluralism and the rights of minorities, and to provide professional training in key areas necessary for the development of democratic institutions.

Publisher of Independent Newspaper Assassinated in Belgrade

Slavko Curuvija, NED grantee and publisher of the Daily Telegraph and the weekly magazine European, was assassinated by masked gunmen on April 11. Curuvija had been sentenced to five months in jail last month for spreading false information.

He joined NED's Paul McCarthy last December to provide testimony on the human rights situation in the former Yugoslavia. Curuvija's newspapers had carried anti-Milosevic commentaries. The Serbian regime's crackdown on independent media in the FRY has accelerated since NATO action began on March 24.
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Slain Iranian Dissidents Remembered

Arash Fourouhar visited NED in February to speak about the murders of his parents, Dariush and Parvaneh Fourouhar, and to focus international attention on Iranian human rights activists who have been threatened, imprisoned and murdered.

The Fourouhars, both strong advocates of human rights and democracy, were murdered in their Tehran home on Nov. 22, 1998. Thousands of Iranians gathered outside the Fourouhars' residence in protest of the brutal murder. At the NED meeting, Arash Fourouhar showed a video of the funeral documenting the participation of more than 100,000 people chanting democracy slogans. As a result of the surprising public outcry, President Khatemi set up a committee to investigate the murder. On Jan. 5 the Ministry of Information issued a communiqué admitting its agents' direct involvement in the murders.

The Fourouhars had headed the Hezeb-e-Mellat-e-Iran, a secular political party that is banned but tolerated in Iran, that openly advocated a democratic regime and regularly denounced human rights violations. Dariush Fourouhar became involved in politics in the 1940's. His outspoken support for democracy in the 1950's led to numerous arrests, and in 1951 he founded Iran's Nation Party as part of Mossadeq's National Front. In 1977 he wrote an open letter to the Shah with Shapour Bakhtiar and Karim Sanjabi citing the regime's abuses and requested that the Iranian leader respect the constitution. Parvaneh Fourouhar was a noted journalist and poet, and one of only two women to be elected to the National Front's Congress.

"My eternal and proudest moment is that I have dedicated my life for Iran and after I am gone, the youth of this country will continue this struggle for freedom," said Dariush Fourouhar before his death. "And even if they kill me, the struggle of Iranians will continue."

Arash Fourouhar came to the United States in February to help focus international pressure on the Iranian government to send an independent group of jurists to investigate the murder of his parents, and to persuade other countries to stop supporting the Islamic Republic government until it endorses international human rights standards.

"I am not here to ask for your sympathy," he told attendees at the Feb. 4 NED event. "I ask only that you remain loyal to your principles, overcome your contradictions, and be consistent. I ask you to firmly defend human rights while remaining open and ready for dialogue. In doing so, you will enhance the prestige of democracy and the [Universal] Declaration of Human Rights. That would be the most valuable support that Western democracy can offer the Iranian people."

Fourouhar said that although the Ministry admitted its agents' involvement, the minister of information was not forced to resign, while the minister of culture -- one of the men responsible for a recent opening of political space for the Iranian press -- was forced to resign.

Fourouhar and his sister were forced to wait for 10 days before they were allowed inside their parents' house . Once they were allowed to enter, they found papers, books, clothes, and some of the Fourouhars' writings scattered everywhere.

Meeting Attendees Question Media Coverage

A noticeable lack of American media coverage of the Fourouhars' murder dominated the follow-up discussion at the Feb. 4 meeting. During his introduction of Arash Fourouhar, NED President Carl Gershman noted that the murders occurred the same weekend that Russian democracy advocate Galina Starovoitova was murdered. While the Starovoitova murder gained widespread global media attention, as it should have, said Gershman, there was virtually no coverage of the assassination of two of Iran's most important democratic activists and the overwhelming outpouring of grief and outrage by the Iranian people which followed the murders.

"There is a wall as thick as the Berlin wall that separates us from the people of Iran, and we've got to tear that wall down and build a new kind of friendship between our two peoples," said Gershman. "If we are to do so it's going to be because there were people and are people like the Fourouhars who gave their life for freedom just as Galina gave her life for freedom and just as others will in the future."
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NED News & Events

NED pays tribute to retiring board members

NED friends and staff paid tribute and said goodbye to three Endowment board members at a reception on Jan. 20. Mark Palmer, Harry G. Barnes, Jr., and Susan Kaufman Purcell were honored at a reception hosted by NED and the Council on Foreign Relations the night before their retirement from the NED board.

Barnes is Chair of the Human Rights Committee and Director of the Conflict Resolution Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta. He served as U.S. Ambassador to three countries: Romania (1974-77), India (1981-85), and Chile (1985-88). He has served as the NED Board's expert on programs in the Middle East region. The presentation to Barnes was made by Indian Ambassador to the United States Naresh Chandra.

Palmer, whose tribute was read by Hungarian Ambassador to the United States Geza Jeszensky, is founder and co-owner of Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. As U.S. Ambassador to Hungary in the late 1980's, he was in the forefront of the struggle for democracy. Palmer played an important role in the establishment of the Endowment, and has served as NED Board expert on programs in Central and Eastern Europe.

Purcell is Vice President of the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas in New York City. Between 1981 and 1988 she was a Senior Fellow and Director of the Latin America Project at the Council on Foreign Relations. A former professor of political science at the University of California (Los Angeles), Purcell has edited and authored numerous books on Latin America, and served as the NED Board's expert on the region's programs. The presentation was made by Chilean Ambassador to the United States Genaro Arriagada.

Fascell Fellowships Proposed

On February 3, 1999 House International Relations Committee (HRIC) Chairman Ben Gilman proposed the creation of an international democracy fellowship program to honor the memory of former HIRC Chairman, Dante Fascell, who was also the founder of NED and its first acting chairman. Gilman made his remarks at a Congressional memorial service for Fascell. The program, which would be housed at NED's think tank, the International Forum for Democratic Studies, would enable democracy activists, scholars and practitioners from around the world to make significant contributions to the strengthening of democracy in their respective countries and regions, thus helping to fulfill Fascell's vision for a democratic world.

New book addresses power and accountability

A recently-released book, The Self-Restraining State: Power and Accountability in New Democracies, explores the challenges facing new democracies throughout the world. The Self-Restraining State was edited by Andreas Schedler, professor of political science at FLACSO in Mexico City, and Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner, co-directors of NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies and co-editors of the Journal of Democracy.

New democracies all over the world are finding themselves haunted by the old demons of clientelism, corruption, arbitrariness, and the abuse of power — leading to a growing awareness that, in addition to elections, democracy requires checks and balances. Democratic governments must be accountable to the electorate; but they must also be subject to restraint and oversight by other public agencies. It is not enough that citizens control the state. The state must control itself.

This collection explores how new democracies can achieve that goal. Focusing on electoral administration, judicial systems, corruption control, and central banks, the authors consider such issues as how governments can establish effective agencies of restraint, why they should accept them, and what those agencies can do to achieve credibility.

A hard cover copy of The Self-Restraining State costs $59.95 and the paperback version costs $24.95. To order by telephone or fax with a credit card call (303) 444-6684, or fax mailing address and credit card information to (303) 444-0824. To order via mail, send an order form (www.rienner.com) to Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1800 30th St., Suite 314, Boulder, CO 80301.
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