Promoting democracy

TY - JOUR

T1 - Promoting democracy

AU - Beissinger, Mark R.

N1 - Funding Information: may have been indigenous, support provided pay of the U.S. government or NGOs, in orby the American government and American-der to train local groups in how to organize a based NGOs was critical to their materializa-democratic revolution. A number of leaders of tion and spread. The U.S. government, for in-the Ukrainian youth movement Pora were stance, spent $41 million promoting anti-trained in Serbia at the Center for Non-Vio-Milogevic civil society groups such as Otpor, lent Resistance, a consulting organization set the student group that spearheaded the up by Otpor activists to instruct youth leaders Serbian Bulldozer Revolution in 2000. The from around the world in how to organize a Clinton administration even erected a series movement, motivate voters, and develop mass of transmitters around the periphery of Serbia actions. "They taught us everything we know," to provide alternative news coverage, and it one leading member of Pora told a Deutsche established a special office in Budapest to co-Welle correspondent. After the Rose and Or-ordinate assistance to Milogevic's opponents. ange revolutions, Georgian and Ukrainian Georgian social movements first formed links youth movements began to challenge Otpor's with Otpor in spring 2003 (six months before consulting monopoly. Pora activists even joked the Rose Revolution), when civil-society ac-about creating a new Comintern for democratic tivists from Georgia visited Belgrade on a trip revolution. In fact, Vladislav Kaskiv, the leader sponsored by the Soros Foundation. With fi-of Pora, met with President Bush at the nancial and logistical help from abroad, Otpor Bratislava summit and received the president's activists trained Georgian activists in tech-support for creating a center to aid the spread niques of nonviolent resistance. The local of democratic revolution to Russia, Belarus, Georgian branch of the Soros Foundation Moldova, and Azerbaijan. Ukrainian, Georgian, helped support Kmara (the Georgian version and Serbian activists have developed modules of Otpor) out of its $350,000 election sup-for teaching the art of nonviolent revolution. port program, and Kmara and other opposi-These modern professional revolutionaries tion groups received significant financial and have turned up with increasing frequency in organizational aid from the National Demo-Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. cratic Institute. In Ukraine, the U.S. govern- ment spent $65 million promoting democracy S OME DEMOCRACY-PROMOTION NGOs such in the years immediately preceding the Oras Freedom House have embraced non-ange Revolution—most of it channeled to violent resistance as the most promising Ukrainian NGOs and social movements that path for promoting democratic change around opposed Kuchma—through third-party NGOs the world. A March 2005 Freedom House re-such as Freedom House or the National En-port by Adrian Karatnycky, senior scholar at dowment for Democracy. The United States Freedom House, and Peter Ackerman, chair of Agency for International Development its board of trustees, argues that the greatest (USAID), for instance, granted millions of long-term gains in democratization have oc-dollars to the Poland-America-Ukraine Coop-curred as a result of nonviolent "people-power" eration Initiative (PAUCI), administered by movements rather than "pacted" democratic Freedom House. PAUCI then sent these transitions from above. They base their find-funds to Ukrainian NGOs associated with the ings on a simple correlational analysis of Free-anti-Kuchma opposition. dom House scores over the last several de-Indeed, fostering democratic revolution has cades. Karatnycky and Ackerman call for a now become an international business. In ad-"paradigm shift" in democracy-promotion that dition to the millions of dollars of aid involved, would target aid to those groups that make numerous consulting operations have arisen, nonviolent civic resistance a priority, encour-many of them led by the former revolutionar-age broad-based coalitions among opposition ies themselves. Since the Serbian revolution, forces, transfer knowledge about civil resis-for instance, Otpor activists have become, as tance to opposition groups, invest in alterna-one Serbian analyst put it, "a modern type of tive media networks, and wield external sanc-mercenary," traveling the world, often in the tions to constrain the repression of democratic opponents. Ackerman himself is a major expert on nonviolent resistance and founder of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, which conducts training workshops on promoting democracy and human rights. His film Bringing Down A Dictator, a PBS documentary detailing the overthrow of Milogevic, has become something of a best-seller among would-be democratic revolutionaries.

PY - 2006/12

Y1 - 2006/12

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33748520604&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33748520604&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:33748520604

SN - 0012-3846

SP - 18

EP - 24

JO - Dissent

JF - Dissent

IS - WINTER

ER -