Inauguration of Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture Series
On December 6, the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. hosted the first annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World. The inaugural lecture was given by former Brazilian president and eminent sociologist Fernando Henrique Cardoso and will appear in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of Democracy. The series, cosponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy and the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, will be held in future years in both Canada and the United States, in recognition of Lipset’s longstanding interest in comparing these two democracies.
On this occasion, the NED awarded Lipset its Democracy Service Medal for his outstanding contribution to the study of democracy. Tributes were paid to Lipset by NED president Carl Gershman, Journal of Democracy editors Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner, Canadian ambassador Michael F. Kergin, professors Francis Fukuyama (Johns Hopkins-SAIS) and Neil Nevitte (University of Toronto), and CNN commentator Bill Schneider.
New Democracy Index
The Bertelsmann TransformationIndex (BTI), a new global ranking that evaluates development and transformation processes in 116 countries worldwide, recently published its 2003 ratings. The quantitative data collected are organized in two parallel indices: the Status Index, which assesses the status of a country’s democracy and market economy; and the Management Index, which analyzes the quality of a country’s political management. In addition to these indices, the BTI also produces individual reports on each of the countries surveyed. The BTI is a project of Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation and the Center for Applied Policy Research at Munich University. More information and the [End Page 186] complete ratings for 2003 are available at www.bertelsmann-transformation-index.de.
Europe: A Beautiful Idea?
On November 18-20, the U.S. Library of Congress hosted a conference, cosponsored by the Netherlands-based Nexus Institute, entitled “Civilization and Power: Freedom and Democracy.” Panel discussions were held on the following topics:
1) “The Idea of Europe and the American Promise” (Robert Kagan, Carnegie Endowment; Alexander Smolar, Stefan Batory Foundation, Warsaw; Francis Fukuyama, Johns Hopkins-SAIS; and Pat Cox, former president of the European Parliament).
2) “Is Democracy Weakening in the West?” (Thomas Pangle, University of Texas; Richard Wolin, City University of New York; Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago; and Canadian author John Ralston Saul).
3) “Human Rights and Democracy: Defending Common Values” (Dutch minister of justice Piet Hein Donner; Kanan Makiya, Brandeis University; Shashi Tharoor, UN under-secretary-general; Bassam Tibi, University of Goettingen; and Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California at Santa Barbara).
The conference was part of the series “Europe: A Beautiful Idea?” organized by the Nexus Institute with the support of the Dutch government during its presidency of the Council of the European Union. The series was aimed at stimulating dialogue between the world of ideas and the world of decision makers. Other meetings took place in The Hague on September 7 (speakers included Dutch prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende, former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, and Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga); in Warsaw on October 1-3; and in Berlin on October 22-24.The series culminated with an “intellectual summit” in Rotterdam on December 4. For more information, visit www.nexus-institute.nl.
Carnegie Opens Office in China
In September, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace announced two major additions to its China program: a project office in Beijing to serve as a base for joint U.S.-China research activities, and a Chinese-language web site (at www.carnegieendowment.org/china) with translations of Carnegie research reports and articles from Foreign Policy magazine. The office will be located at the China Reform Forum, a Beijing-based nongovernmental research institute. For more information, see www.carnegieendowment.org.
Stanford Conference
On October 4-5, the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University’s Institute for International Studies organized a workshop entitled “Promoting Democracy and the Rule of Law: EU and U.S. Strategies and Instruments.” Panel discussions focused on policy prospects for [End Page 187] enhanced EU-U.S. cooperation, as well as regional approaches in the Middle East and Russia and the “Wider Europe.” Participants included Laurence Whitehead (Oxford University), Ronald Asmus (German Marshall Fund of the United States), Larry Diamond (Hoover Institution), Michael Emerson (Centre for European Policy Studies), and Michael McFaul (Stanford University). For further information, see http://cddrl.stanford.edu
Wilson Center Transitions Conference
On October 1, the Woodrow Wilson Center organized a conference to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its project on “Transitions from Authoritarian Rule.” This project culminated in a set of four published volumes, edited by Guillermo O’Donnell, Philippe Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, that for many years was one of the most frequently cited works in comparative politics and profoundly influenced the study of democ-ratization. The conference began with a public session featuring presentations by O’Donnell, Schmitter, Whitehead, and Abraham Lowenthal, former director of the Wilson Center’s Latin American Program. During the afternoon and the following morning some 25 leading scholars of democracy discussed current approaches to the study of democracy both in Latin America and around the world. An event summary is available at http://wwics.si.edu.
Report on NED’s International Forum
On September 20-24, the Forum hosted the first Washington Workshop for Think-Tank Managers. The purpose of the workshop was to improve the administrative skills of senior managers of member institutions of the Network of Democracy Research Institutes. Participants received briefings at many of the most important policy-research centers in Washington, D.C.
Nine think-tank managers were selected for the program through a competitive application process. They represented the Afrobarometer (South Africa), Centre for Democracy and Development (Nigeria), Ghana Center for Democratic Development, St. Petersburg Center for Humanities and Political Studies (Russia), Center for Liberal Democratic Studies (Serbia), Center for Democracy and Human Rights (Montenegro), Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies (Egypt), and Academy of Political Education (Mongolia).
On November 18, in cooperation with the U.S. Representative Office of the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD), the International Forum hosted a luncheon meeting on “Turkey’s Internal Reforms and EU Accession Prospects.” The event featured Soli Özel and Ilter Turan, both professors of political science at Istanbul Bilgi University, and Laith Kubba, senior program officer for the Middle East and North Africa at the NED.
Copyright © 2005 National Endowment for Democracy and Johns Hopkins University Press