Aiding Democracy Abroad: The Learning Curve - Softcover

Carothers, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0870031694 ISBN 13: 9780870031694

Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for Int'l Peace, 1999

Synopsis

Aid to promote democracy abroad has emerged as a major growth industry in recent years. Not only the United States but many other Western countries, international institutions, and private foundations today use aid to support democratic transitions in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Though extensive in scope, these activities remain little understood outside the realm of specialists. Debates among policymakers over democracy promotion oscillate between unhelpful poles of extreme skepticism and unrealistic boosterism, while the vast majority of citizens in aid-providing countries have little awareness of the democracy-building efforts their governments sponsor. Aiding Democracy Abroad is the first independent, comprehensive assessment of this important new field. Drawing on extensive field research and years of hands-on experience, Thomas Carothers examines democracy-aid programs relating to elections, political parties, governmental reform, rule of law, civil society, independent media, labor unions, decentralization, and other elements of what he describes as "the democracy template" that policymakers and aid officials apply around the world. Steering a careful path between the inflated claims of aid advocates and the exaggerated criticisms of their opponents, Carothers takes a hard look at what such programs achieve and how they can be improved.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Carothers is vice president for international politics and governance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and founder and director of the Endowment's Democracy and Rule of Law Project.

Review:

[Carothers] believes that democracy assistance can be modestly useful if appropriately implemented, especially in countries where the commitment to building a democratic political system is already strong. -- The New York Times Book Review, Michael Mandelbaum

About this edition

• Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for Int'l Peace
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0870031694
• ISBN 13: 9780870031694
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 410