Collaborative Workshops Yield
Special Edition of Democracy Journal
Following an extended program of student involvement in a research workshop series, the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies has published a selection of articles addressing questions of democracy assistance policy in an era of deepening security concerns in the journal, Democratization. The project unfolded as a two-session workshop held first on the CCNY campus and subsequently at the University of Washington’s Henry Jackson School for International Studies. At those sessions, invited scholars and the Center's student fellows read and commented on one another’s work, synthesized the discussion’s recommendations and criticisms of democracy-assistance policy, and ultimately produced a collection of policy articles that cohered around several important themes.
The key argument in the volume centers on what the students and scholars identified as a central tension in democracy-assistance policy in a world of heightened security concerns, running between policy that seeks to promote democratic outcomes (i.e. the election of candidates with stated democratic commitments) or democratic processes (even if they result in the election of officials without such commitments or with histories of undemocratic activity). As security concerns mount, US policy makers at home and abroad will feel more pressure to support individuals whom they can call democrats in office.
The papers in the collection, while representing a diverse set of views and covering a variety of topics, converge on the importance of paying attention to (and trusting in) the influence of democratic political processes on outcomes. Efforts to secure a democratic outcome in an election may often lead to the reverse, while even candidates with poor records for democratic activity may be forced in more democratic directions by the process of democratic competition.
The collection includes articles by Professors Carrie Manning, Eric McGlinchey, and Sharon Lean. Colin Powell Center Director Vince Boudreau contributed the introductory and concluding chapters, which are designed to unify the collection and to draw out common themes from the discussion. The collection appears at the April 2007 volume of Democratization, entitled “Democracy and Security: Process versus Outcome in Assistance Policy?"
Special Edition of Democracy Journal
Following an extended program of student involvement in a research workshop series, the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies has published a selection of articles addressing questions of democracy assistance policy in an era of deepening security concerns in the journal, Democratization. The project unfolded as a two-session workshop held first on the CCNY campus and subsequently at the University of Washington’s Henry Jackson School for International Studies. At those sessions, invited scholars and the Center's student fellows read and commented on one another’s work, synthesized the discussion’s recommendations and criticisms of democracy-assistance policy, and ultimately produced a collection of policy articles that cohered around several important themes.
The key argument in the volume centers on what the students and scholars identified as a central tension in democracy-assistance policy in a world of heightened security concerns, running between policy that seeks to promote democratic outcomes (i.e. the election of candidates with stated democratic commitments) or democratic processes (even if they result in the election of officials without such commitments or with histories of undemocratic activity). As security concerns mount, US policy makers at home and abroad will feel more pressure to support individuals whom they can call democrats in office.
The papers in the collection, while representing a diverse set of views and covering a variety of topics, converge on the importance of paying attention to (and trusting in) the influence of democratic political processes on outcomes. Efforts to secure a democratic outcome in an election may often lead to the reverse, while even candidates with poor records for democratic activity may be forced in more democratic directions by the process of democratic competition.
The collection includes articles by Professors Carrie Manning, Eric McGlinchey, and Sharon Lean. Colin Powell Center Director Vince Boudreau contributed the introductory and concluding chapters, which are designed to unify the collection and to draw out common themes from the discussion. The collection appears at the April 2007 volume of Democratization, entitled “Democracy and Security: Process versus Outcome in Assistance Policy?"
