Profound Shifts Toward Democracy Occurring, USAID Leader Says
By Kathryn McConnell
Washington File, May 27, 2005

Civil society organizations and political parties that have been repressed are increasingly helping spread democracy in the developing world, says Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Addressing USAID's Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid May 25 at the National Press Club in Washington, Natsios cited "profound shifts" toward democracy in such countries as Lebanon, Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ethiopia.

USAID is the largest aid agency in the world that supports democratization efforts, Natsios said. Its budget for democracy promotion efforts for fiscal year 2004 was $685 million, with an additional $500 million for democratization efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.

The agency's democratization objectives include helping countries expand political freedom and competition, promoting justice and human rights through improved rule of law, and strengthening accountability in governance by helping countries establish regulations and judicial systems.

"Development and reconstruction won't work without good governance," Natsios said.

Democratization is most often stalled by "internal resistance to reform" and by governments' inability to absorb reforms, he said.

Thus, USAID's democracy program emphasizes the need for strategies based on individual countries' specific democratization needs, including at the local level, the administrator said.

Natsios also called for more U.S. spending on long-term scholarships for future foreign leaders to help build countries' leadership capacity.

USAID's assessment of a country's need for democratization development assistance includes evaluations of:

• The presence of a "national identity" among citizens and the presence of a constitution;
• The level of "peaceful competition" among political parties and groups with varying views; multi-party elections; access to and administration of a justice system; checks and balances among the administrative, legislative, and judicial branches of government; the presence of rule of law; and freedom of the press;
• Efforts to help stop "grand corruption," or corruption that leads to a decline on a country's gross national product (GNP);
• The inclusion of all citizens in the country's political, social and economic life;
  
  Inclusion involves allowing universal suffrage, "get out the vote" efforts, and decentralizing political power from the national to local levels, Natsios said.
  
  U.S. democracy-promotion efforts in developing countries are crucial because "America is no longer threatened by powerful states, but by failed states," Natsios said.
  
  "Bad governance causes failed states," he added.