Search results

CIVIL SOCIETY HAS BECOME VERY IMPORTANT--A PREQUISITE FOR DEVELOPING A HEALTHY POLITY AND VIBRANT ECONOMY. THIS ARTICLE CAUTIONS THAT TOO MUCH OF THE WRONG KIND CAN ACTUALLY WEAKEN DEMOCRACY AND PRODUCE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC GRIDLOCK. IT QUESTIONS THE USEFULNESS OF NGOS AND ARGUES THAT CIVIL SOCIETY REALISM SHOULD NOT BE A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS.

AMONG THOSE AMERICANS INVOLVED IN THE BUSINESS OF PROMOTING DEMOCRACY ABROAD, THE RELATION BETWEEN THE PROFFERED IDEAL AND THE ACTUAL STATE OF DEMOCRACY AT HOME IS RARELY DISCUSSED. AS A RESULT, LITTLE ATTENTION HAS BEEN GIVEN TO THE SURPRISING AND IN SOME WAYS PARADOXICAL FACT THAT THE UNITED STATES, AND TO A LESSER EXTENT WESTERN EUROPE, HAVE MOVED INTO A PARTICULARLY ACTIVE PHASE OF PROMOTING DEMOCRACY IN OTHER COUNTRIES AT A TIME WHEN THE HEALTH OF THEIR OWN DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM IS CLOUDED WITH DOUBT. LEAVING ASIDE THE MANY SERIOUS SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE CONTINUING INABILITY OF WESTERN EUROPEAN ECONOMIES TO CREATE JOBS, ONE CAN POINT TO A SET OF INTERRELATED POLITICAL PROBLEMS IN MANY WELL-ESTABLISHED DEMOCRACIES. IN GENERAL, THE POLITICAL SPHERE IS NO LONGER MUCH RESPECTED OR VALUED. ANTIPOLITICAL PERSONALITIES AND IDEAS HAVE GROWN IN APPEAL, WITH THE UNDERSIDE OF ANTIPOLITICS OFTEN NOT FAR FROM ANTIDEMOCRACY.

Outlines debate surrounding the National Endowment for Democracy on its tenth anniversary; US.

An external evaluation was carried out in July-August 2003 to assess the results and the implementation process of the first 15 months of IMD's programme in Guatemala. The central objective of this programme is to strengthen political parties and the party system in a sustainable way. Several unfavourable conditions limit the realisation of this ambition: (i) the political party system in Guatemala has been unstable, fragmented, polarised and discredited, (ii) political parties were often not more than electoral machines, lacking a programmatic and ideological base, and generally figured among the weakest actors in society, (iii) political participation by citizens has been very low, especially among the indigenous majority of the population. Against this background, since March 2002 IMD developed in a joint venture with UNDP an ambitious project for a multiparty dialogue process, trying to generate consensus on a shared National Agenda that reflects the basic principles of the Peace Agreements. The basic idea was that collaboration and dialogue among the parties is a prerequisite for future democratic stability, as none of the individual parties is able to sustain such a national project. Moreover, the national Congress does not function as a forum for dialogue given the polarized political climate in the country.