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Freedom House Official Proposes "Pluralistic" Approach
to Democracy Building
“The Democracy Bureaucracy” Panel Discussion
Co-Sponsored by SAIS, SID-Washington, Kenney Auditorium, October 30, 2006
In the summer edition of The American Interest author Thomas Melia published a “mock memo” to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice critiquing the role of the American government in international democracy promotion. On October 30 at the Kenney Auditorium at SAIS in Washington, D.C. Melia presented his argument to fellow colleagues in a four-person panel discussion that included Francis Fukuyama (SAIS director of International Development), Phillip Levy (Member of the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff, U.S. Department of State), and Anne Richard (Vice President, Government Relations, the International Rescue Committee).
Melia said that there is a need for “pluralism in the field of pluralism,” advocating the disperse ideas and methods of nongovernmental groups rather than a single, cohesive plan orchestrated by the U.S. government. Despite the growth in funding and interest in democratization, Melia believes that we have lost the “appreciation for relationships” between civil societies that is vital to the spread and sustaining of democracy. Instead the governmental funding and over-involvement has led to a “top down” approach that have placed constraints on NGOs in creating strategies that correlate with the issues “in the field.”
The instrumentalizing and politicizing of democratization by the Bush administration has not only had adverse effects in the field, but has also damaged public support in the U.S. for international democracy promotion according to Melia. He cited the recent German Marshall Fund Survey that claimed U.S. public support for the issue was lower than 50%, while over 70% in Europe. He believes that in the past six years there has been a loss of bi-partisan support for democratization policies, which is a result of the wars in Iraq and Afgahnistan being tied into the democracy agenda. Melia fears that a change in government in the upcoming elections may push the country away from promoting democracy.
Melia concludes that the nongovernmental sector separate from governmental funding will allow actors to “engage the world” without a “governmental perspective.” He believes that the diverse ideas of NGOs without governmental constraint are the proper method of engaging in international democracy building. Melia says that it is vital that western NGOs are not seen as a tool of the U.S. government, an especially dangerous connection when there is an unpopular administration. Fragmentized grants diffused into a large number of NGOs will allow a “pluralism” of ideas and approaches to democracy enabling a variety of groups to “get on the ground” in foreign countries and build relationships to foster civil society.
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The “pluralism” of ideas exposed byMelia’s thesis correlates to the "regional networks" effort by CCD on behalf of the International Steering Committee (ISC) of the nongovernmental process. Under an UNDEF grant CCD is serving as the executing agency for the ISC in the creation of five regional networks in each of the five continents, which will develop the sort of broad and diverse relationships Melia advocates in his article. Over the course of the next year four “regional roundtables” will be held in Asia, the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East to strengthen the role that civil society plays in the Community of Democracies (the first roundtable was held in Africa in September). These efforts will lead a permanent civil society networks in all major regions of the world, creating relationships between different organizations and countries that will create an atmosphere of theoretical and methodological “pluralism,” the main argument presented by Melia in “The Democracy Bureaucracy.”
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