Scholarship and Statesmanship
Fernando Henrique Cardoso

On December 6, 2004, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the Canadian Embassy to the United States inaugurated an important new forum for discourse on democracy and its progress worldwide: the Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World.

Welcoming Remarks

• Michael F. Kergin, Ambassador of Canada to the United States
• Lee Hamilton, Director, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Lecture

• Fernando Henrique Cardoso
  Scholarship and Statesmanship ::PDF
  Journal of Democracy, Volume 16, Number 2 April 2005
  

Democracy Service Medal Tribute

• Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy
• Larry Diamond, Co-Director, International Forum for Democratic Studies

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who served as President of Brazil from 1994–2002, is one of Latin America’s most distinguished social scientists and statesmen. A prominent sociologist, Cardoso has been an influential intellectual, an effective public servant and a key figure in Brazil’s emergence as a major democracy.

Born in 1931, Cardoso studied sociology at the University of São Paulo. Early in his career, Cardoso’s commitment to democratic principles and his vocal opposition to Brazil’s military dictators led to his forced exile in 1964. When he returned to Brazil in 1968, he was arrested and banned from teaching. During this time Cardoso established the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Research. The group gathered leading intellectuals to conduct independent research on contemporary social, economic and political questions and quickly became an influential think-tank in Brazil and abroad. To escape further military prosecution, Cardoso spent the 1970s and early 80s teaching in Chile, France and the United States.

Cardoso was first elected to national office in 1986 as a senator from the state of São Paulo; two years later he helped establish the Brazilian Social Democratic Party and led his party in the Brazilian Senate until October 1992. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1992–93) and Minister of Economy and Finance (1993–94). As minister of finance, Cardoso has been credited with successfully working to end hyperinflation and turning around the troubled Brazilian economy.

On October 3, 1994, Cardoso was elected to the fi rst of his two-terms as president. During his presidency, Cardoso strengthened political institutions, increased economic stability and growth, invested in health and human development programs and expanded educational opportunities for all Brazilians while promoting human rights and development. His policies are linked to a significant decrease in the number of Brazilians living below the poverty line.

Cardoso currently chairs the Club of Madrid and the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations-Civil Society Relations and serves as co-chairman of the Inter-American Dialogue and as coordinator of the working group in charge of reviewing the process of Ibero-American Summits. Cardoso has served as a visiting professor at numerous academic centers in Europe and the United States and is professor emeritus of political science at the University of São Paulo. He and his wife Ruth have three children.

Contributors

The National Endowment for Democracy would like to thank the following donors for their generous support of this event:

• The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• The Embassy of Canada
• The American Federation of Teachers