The Evolution of a Movement
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A Community of Democracies
The Evolution of A Movement
While the Community of Democracies, created by Madeline Albright and her colleagues in Poland in 2000, is relatively new, a vision for and a movement toward such a community was born out of the democratic alliances forged in the wake of WWII.
After the fall of Nazism, the world’s democracies found themselves facing a new threat in the form of communism. With initiatives like the Marshall Plan, the U.S. invested in a strong and united Europe that could withstand communist pressures. As a result, the Council of Europe was born in 1949. In the same year, democracies on both sides of the Atlantic established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a military alliance for their mutual security. The U.S. successfully brought Japan into the democratic fold, which led to an extended Atlantic-Pacific system of democratic cooperation
Inspired by, and often influential in, these developments, a group of democratic visionaries came together to advance the idea of creating a more comprehensive and cohesive community of democratic countries to promote and preserve democracy in the world. Led by its first president, James Huntley, who was about to publish his seminal book, Uniting the Democracies, the movement began in 1979 as the Committees of Correspondence, uniting private citizens in many countries around this idea and later became the Committees for a Community of the Democracies (CCD).
After the 1980 U.S. election, CCD set out to influence the foreign policy of the new Reagan Administration. Two years later President Reagan, armed with ideas provided by CCD, made his famous speech at Westminster Hall calling upon nations worldwide to promote democracy by fostering the infrastructure of democracy – free press, unions, political parties, and the rule of law. Ambassador Mark Palmer, who now serves as Vice President of CCD’s Board of Directors, was the principal author of that defining address.
In the same speech the President announced a forthcoming study by the bi-partisan American Political Foundation, headed by Hon. William E. Brock, “to determine how the United States can best contribute as a nation to the global campaign for democracy now gathering force.” A year later, President Reagan presented Congress with his “Project Democracy,” which included $31 million for establishment of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Also in 1982, the first international meeting of the CCD’s took place in London. With the “Declaration of London,” the CCD’s pledged to “work toward a closer community of purpose and action among the democracies of Western Europe, North America and the Western Pacific… composed of genuine democracies, developed and developing…”
In 1985, NED provided funding for a major CCD conference in Racine, Wisconsin, attended by 36 representatives from 26 countries. Opening with a letter from President Reagan, the Wingspread conference adopted, among other resolutions, a proposal to establish a worldwide association of democracies and a proposal for a caucus of the democracies at the United Nations.
The idea was in the air. Committees were taking shape in the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, and Portugal. Regional seminars were held in Mauritius, Costa Rica, Australia, Italy, and Canada. By 1989 there were Committees in Washington, New York, London, Seattle, Paris, Bonn, Ottawa, Montreal, San Francisco, Stockholm, Tokyo, Mauritius, Fiji, Cote d’Ivoire, Sydney, and Melbourne.
As a “Third Wave” of democracy swept the world at the end of the Cold War, dozens of new democracies appeared worldwide. Supporters of the Committees for a Community of Democracies sensed an opportunity. In 1992, the ideas of the Committees were integrated into a project of the Association to Unite the Democracies. Pursuing the same mission as the Committees before it, the project was called “The Next Century Initiative” and involved nearly all of the earlier CCD players. By 1993 this group was incorporated as an independent organization that would later become the Council for a Community of Democracies.
In January 1999, Madeleine Albright, President Clinton’s Secretary of State, told the Los Angeles Times that her highest priority before leaving office was to create a global community of democracies. That objective became a reality the next year when 106 nations, meeting in Warsaw, Poland, launched the Community of Democracies (CD) and committed to the principles of democracy and human rights embodied in that body’s Warsaw Declaration. A 20-year campaign was coming to fruition, but the main task was just beginning—making the new Community of Democracies a strong, democratic institution capable of addressing the needs of an ever-changing world.
With startup funding in hand, the Council for a Community of Democracies opened an office in Washington, D.C. and engaged a professional staff in January 2001. Its first President was the late Walt Raymond, who had been President Reagan’s chief for public diplomacy in the National Security Council and an early supporter of the creation of the NED. Ambassador Mark Palmer became Vice President. Dick Rowson succeeded Raymond as President of CCD after Raymond’s death in 2003. According to Rowson, Raymond was “a great facilitator—he set the pattern for this organization.”
Today, under the leadership of President Dick Rowson and Executive Director Bob LaGamma, the CCD continues to facilitate democratic change and international cooperation by working with civil society and governments around the world to strengthen the Community of Democracies and the ideals for which it stands. Dick Rowson represents the CCD on an International Steering Committee of the non-governmental component of the CD. He and Bob LaGamma have worked closely with African NGOs and the Malian secretariat in their preparations for the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the CD in Mali set to take place in 2007.
The Community of Democracies
“The time has come to convene a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of all countries committed to pursuing a democratic path with the goal of fortifying democratic governance.” -“Toward a Community of Democracies” Concept Paper, approved by the governments of the convening group, on November 22, 1999
Ministerial Conferences:
The Community of Democracies (CD) was officially convened in June of 2000 at the first Ministerial Conference in Warsaw. Secretary of State Albright led the way to this historic meeting of the world’s democracies. With the Warsaw Declaration, delegates representing 106 democracies and aspiring democracies, committed themselves to a multilateral framework of cooperation to advance democratic norms and to work in concert to support and deepen democracy worldwide.
Though the organization does not have a permanent secretariat, a Convening Group (CG) composed primarily of governments that initiated the Warsaw Conference, governs the CD movement. The chairmanship of the CG rotates on a biennial basis. The chairing government is responsible for hosting a biennial Ministerial Conference, as well as carrying out other CD initiatives. The convening group currently consists of Chile, India, Poland, the Czech Republic, the United States of America, Mali, Mexico, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, the Philippines, Mongolia, Morocco, El Salvador, Cape Verde, and Italy. Membership in the CD is reserved for governments that have shown a commitment to democratic governance as outlined in the Warsaw Declaration.
Since the original conference in Warsaw, the chairmanship has been held by South Korea and Chile, which hosted the 2nd and 3rd Ministerial conferences in Seoul (November 2002) and Santiago (April 2005) respectively. In 2005, H.E. Abdoulaye Diop (Mali’s Ambassador to the United States) assumed the Chairmanship of the Convening Group on behalf of Mali, which will host the next Ministerial Conference in Bamako in 2007.
The Non-governmental Process of the Community of Democracies
From its inception, the Community of Democracies has had a strong non-governmental component. During the initial CD meeting in Warsaw, Madeline Albright spoke at a parallel meeting of the World Forum on Democracy. She affirmed the need for governments to work together with civil society, saying “when public and nongovernmental organizations pull together, we can lift the lives of people everywhere.” In subsequent ministerial conferences the civil society component of the CD was strengthened and further developed and emerged out of the preparations for the Santiago Ministerial Conference as the “Non-Governmental Process of the Community of Democracies.”
The non-governmental process refers to the non-governmental members of the CD movement, including civil society organizations, foundations, academics, and experts devoted to promoting democracy. The non-governmental component of the CD serves mainly as a conduit for information and advice to the governments. An Executive Secretariat, composed of NGOs from the host country, coordinates the activities of the non-governmental process in preparation for the upcoming ministerial meeting. Leading up to the 2005 meeting in Santiago, the Executive Secretariat coordinated meetings of NGOs in 6 regions where civil society representatives met to discuss challenges and democracy deficits in their respective regions. The findings of the workshops were compiled and presented to government representatives at the Ministerial Meeting in Santiago.
In addition to the Executive Secretariat, a “Global Issues Group” of non-state actors was also to focus on proposals to strengthen the governmental process of the CD. The Global Issues Group, comprised of various civil society organizations from around the world, sought, among other things, to create objective criteria for CD membership based on the principles laid out in the Warsaw Declarations and reaffirmed by the convening group in Seoul. Based on these criteria, The Democracy Coalition Project and Freedom House presented a final report to the Convening Group governments entitled, “Country Assessments: Invitation process for the Community of Democracy,” which evaluates thirty countries on their fitness to participate as full members in the Community of Democracies.
While governments did not necessarily adopt all the findings of the non-Governmental Process, the forum that has been created within the framework of the Community of Democracies for the exchange of ideas and experience between governments and civil society actors is an important component.
Today the Global Issues Group has become the International Steering Committee (ISC) of the non-governmental process. The Steering Committee is made up of twenty representatives of civil society organizations from five regions of the world and a representative of the Executive Secretariat. The Steering Committee met most recently at the World Movement for Democracy conference held in Istanbul from April 1-5, 2006. Richard Rowson participated in the meeting on behalf of the CCD.
Future of the Community:
That the Community of Democracies exists at all is a major step toward a more just and peaceful democratic world order. However, CCD believes that this new multilateral framework has not been utilized to its full potential. In a recent taskforce report, CCD identified some key areas where the CD framework can be used to make a greater impact. First of all, the increased participation of the EU, and especially of the Western European nations, is essential for giving the CD more clout and credibility. Secondly, CD governments ought to be more active in the face of threats to democracies especially in the UN through the Democracy Caucus. Finally, the CD should move toward establishing a permanent secretariat. The International Steering Committee and Convening Group can fill this role in the interim. However, a permanent home and staff can ensure a strong CD presence between biennial conferences and serve as the “institutional memory” of the organization, providing continuity of purpose and action.
The U.N. Democracy Caucus:
“We will collaborate on democracy-related issues in existing international and regional institutions, forming coalitions and caucuses to support resolutions and other international activities aimed at the promotion of democratic governance. This will help to create an external environment conducive to democratic development.” -Warsaw Declaration: Toward a Community of Democracies, Warsaw, Poland, June 27, 2000
On September 22, 2004, the Community of Democracies met for the first time as a “democracy caucus” in the U.N. More than 80 Foreign Ministers and UN permanent representatives attended. Since then the caucus has functioned under the leadership of the country chairing the Convening Group of the Community of Democracies to promote a democratic agenda in the U.N.
Since its inception, pundits have suggested that the Community of Democracies is a competing organization or even a potential substitute for the United Nations. It is neither. On the contrary, a Democracy Caucus in the U.N can strengthen the international body by creating a forum in which democracies can coordinate their positions and steer the UN in a direction that will enhance its role in democratic development and other human rights issues that its democratic members are concerned with.
In November 2005, the Malian mission to the UN issued a statement on behalf of the Community of Democracies (link) in support of creating a more effective and legitimate human rights council in the UN.
Future of the Caucus:
The creation of a democracy caucus is a major step away from the UN norm of regional blocs. Its existence challenges the current way the UN is organized and operates, and speaks to a more hopeful, democratic future for this important world body.
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