On May 7, the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) hosted Egyptian activist Ahmed Salah who spoke about the series of events that led up to the Egyptian revolution and the current struggles the country faces in realizing its revolutionary goals. Salah, an alumni of the 2011 Draper Hills Summer Fellowship at CDDRL, has been at the forefront of the revolutionary movement in Egypt. He has been involved in the launch of opposition groups and movements since 2005, including the April 6 Youth Movement and Kifaya (Enough!), both of which played roles in organizing and mobilizing the forces behind the revolution.

Salah returned to Stanford as part of a larger speaking tour across the U.S., to raise awareness and support for the democratic development of Egypt. With the military undermining the goals of the revolution, the constitution-writing process stalled, and a rush towards presidential elections, Salah emphasized the critical moment Egypt faces in its transition towards democracy.

Forced into exiled for his activism, Salah has sought temporary refuge in the U.S. and is dedicating his time to building awareness and advocacy for his cause through the Coalition of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution in Washington D.C. and beyond.

Addressing the CDDRL seminar, Salah recalled the defining moments of the January revolution, “Getting into Tahrir in the morning, the stench of tear gas was so strong, all these burning vehicles and buildings all around - blood - pools of blood in different locations, and protestors were coming in, again.”

Salah was instrumental in co-devising and implementing the plan leading up to the revolution and has been subject to arrest, incarceration, and abuse as a result of his actions. He described being beaten and his nose broken when a gang of thugs surrounded him in Tahrir Square, and another incident when he was targeted by a sniper firing into a crowd of protestors. He escaped with his life but was not as lucky as thousands of other activists.

As the country faces a crucial period of political transition with presidential elections approaching, Salah emphasized the fact that candidates have not had enough time to campaign, leaving voters with an incomplete picture of the competing platforms. He cited examples of direct vote rigging and manipulation in the parliamentary elections and stressed the importance of ensuring a transparent process when electing Egypt's first post-revolutionary president. While Salah recognizes the shortcomings of the transition period, he endeavors to ensure that the goals of the revolution and the activists who made great sacrifices are fully realized in the long-run. 

On May 25-26, the Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law (CDDRL) will hold its seventh annual Taiwan Democracy Project conference on, "How the Public Views Democracy and its Competitors in East Asia: Taiwan in Comparative Perspective” at Stanford University. Held in partnership with the Program for East Asia Democratic Studies and the Institute for the Advanced Studies for Humanities and Social Sciences at National Taiwan University, the conference will bring together leading social scientists from Taiwan and other Asian countries to present and discuss papers analyzing the third wave of data from the Asian Barometer Survey.

The Asian Barometer Survey is a cross-national comparative survey that has been implemented in 17 Asian countries. Collecting micro-level data under a common research framework and methodology, the survey provides insights into commonly held attitudes and values towards politics, power, reform, and democracy in Asia. Over the course of the two-day period, experts in comparative politics and public opinion will present papers analyzing the data from the Asian Barometer in greater detail to examine the challenges of democratic consolidation in East Asia.

According to CDDRL Director Larry Diamond, “The goal of the conference is to examine the levels, trends, and causal determinants of support for democracy in Taiwan and throughout East Asia. The papers presented at this forum will be published in an edited volume to document democratic attitudes and values in Asia."

Paper presenters include; Chong-min Park, professor of public administration at Korea University and director of Survey Research Center of Institute of Governmental Studies, who  will discuss a region-wide comparison of the quality of governance and its implications for democratic legitimacy; Feng-Yu Lee, assistant professor in the department of political science at National Taiwan University who will present a paper alongside Chinen Wu, associate research fellow at the Institute of Political Science at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, about the comparative analysis of the wealth divide and the issue of political inclusion; and Doh Shin, the Jack W. Peltason Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Democracy in the University of California-Irvine and  founder of the Korea Barometer Surveys, who will share a comparative analysis of cultural sources of diffuse regime support.

All sessions will be held in the Bechtel Conference Center in Encina Hall and are free and open to the public. To view the agenda and RSVP to the conference, please click here.

The provision of public goods and services - education, healthcare, sanitation, potable water and other government benefits - are linked to issues of governance. The Program on Poverty and Governance at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) together with the Center for Latin American Studies will host a conference on May 18-19 at Stanford University to explore how governance impacts the provision of public goods and services throughout the world.

The conference will bring together an interdisciplinary group of economists, political scientists, policymakers, and public health researchers to present on-going research on the links between governance and public goods provisions. The conference will also focus on government corruption, electoral clientelism and the critical role of external actors in the provision and delivery of public goods.

According to Beatriz Magaloni, the director of the Program on Poverty and Governance at CDDRL, “A goal of the conference is to present pioneering research on the major issues facing public goods provision in developing economies and to explore a variety of institutional, political, and international factors that work to improve or hinder government capacity and accountability in service delivery.”

Conference speakers include: Stephen D. Krasner, professor of international relations and deputy director of the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, commenting on external actors and the provision of goods in areas of limited statehood; Stuti Khemani, senior economist at the World Bank, who will speak about information access and public health benefits; Miriam Goldman, visiting research scholar from Princeton University, who will examine corruption and electricity in India; Edward Miguel, director of the Center for Effective Global Action at UC Berkeley, who will present on institutional reform through minority participation; and James D. Fearon, professor of political science at Stanford University and CDDRL affiliated faculty, and David Laitin, professor of political science and Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) affiliated faculty who will both serve as distinguished discussants.

All sessions will be held in the CISAC Conference room, 2^nd floor of Encina Hall Central, and are free and open to the public. To view the complete agenda and RSVP to the conference, please click here.