Governance

FSI's research on the origins, character and consequences of government institutions spans continents and academic disciplines. The institute’s senior fellows and their colleagues across Stanford examine the principles of public administration and implementation. Their work focuses on how maternal health care is delivered in rural China, how public action can create wealth and eliminate poverty, and why U.S. immigration reform keeps stalling. 

FSI’s work includes comparative studies of how institutions help resolve policy and societal issues. Scholars aim to clearly define and make sense of the rule of law, examining how it is invoked and applied around the world. 

FSI researchers also investigate government services – trying to understand and measure how they work, whom they serve and how good they are. They assess energy services aimed at helping the poorest people around the world and explore public opinion on torture policies. The Children in Crisis project addresses how child health interventions interact with political reform. Specific research on governance, organizations and security capitalizes on FSI's longstanding interests and looks at how governance and organizational issues affect a nation’s ability to address security and international cooperation.

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Please join visiting scholar Sviatoslav Vakarchuk and Mosbacher Director of CDDRL Francis Fukuyama for a conversation on Ukraine's future success. 

 

Encina Hall, C148
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305

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Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Director of the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy
Research Affiliate at The Europe Center
Professor by Courtesy, Department of Political Science
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Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a faculty member of FSI's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). He is also Director of Stanford's Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy, and a professor (by courtesy) of Political Science.

Dr. Fukuyama has written widely on issues in development and international politics. His 1992 book, The End of History and the Last Man, has appeared in over twenty foreign editions. His book In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir will be published in fall 2026.

Francis Fukuyama received his B.A. from Cornell University in classics, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in Political Science. He was a member of the Political Science Department of the RAND Corporation, and of the Policy Planning Staff of the US Department of State. From 1996-2000 he was Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, and from 2001-2010 he was Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He served as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2001-2004. He is editor-in-chief of American Purpose, an online journal.

Dr. Fukuyama holds honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, Doane College, Doshisha University (Japan), Kansai University (Japan), Aarhus University (Denmark), the Pardee Rand Graduate School, and Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland). He is a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Rand Corporation, the Board of Trustees of Freedom House, and the Board of the Volcker Alliance. He is a fellow of the National Academy for Public Administration, a member of the American Political Science Association, and of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is married to Laura Holmgren and has three children.

(October 2025)

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CDDRL Mosbacher Director and Olivier Nomellini Fellow at FSI
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Visiting Scholar, Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program, 2017-18
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Vakarchuk is a Ukrainian civic activist, musician and the lead vocalist and founder of the band “Okean Elzy.“ He will be in residence at CDDRL this fall to attend courses and study with some of the leading intellectuals and academics at CDDRL. He holds a doctorate degree in theoretical physics from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

Vakarchuk is also the founder of a charity fund called “Lyudi Maybutnyogo” (People of the Future) and co-founder of the Center for Economic Strategy, an independent policy think tank dedicated to supporting reforms and sustainable economic growth in Ukraine. He served as a Yale World Fellow in 2015.

CDDRL Visiting Scholar and lead singer of "Okean Elzy" rock group
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"Surveying America’s political history, Larry Diamond of Stanford University divines 'a general pattern of resilience, punctuated by dark periods of authoritarian temptation.'" From Franklin D. Roosevelt to Richard Nixon, America has had her fair share of presidential rule-breakers. How does the Trump presidency fit into this history? Larry Diamond weighs in in The Economist.

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This paper examines the impact of government guaranteed small business loans on regional growth. I construct a metro-level panel of the Small Business Administration's guaranteed loans and examine economic growth between 1993 and 2002, across 316 metro areas in the US. A simple OLS regression finds a significant positive relationship between small business loans and regional growth. However, first-difference and instrumental variable regressions that mitigate endogeneity find no significant employment or income growth effects from small business loans. At least from an efficiency perspective, there seems to be no net gains to the regional economy from guaranteed small business loans.

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This paper examines how the spatial distribution of economic activity evolved within North Korea during a period of economic sanctions. Countries have used economic sanctions to isolate North Korea from the benefits of international trade and finance. China, however, has not imposed the sanctions, and consequentially has offset the trade restrictions imposed by other countries. I hypothesize three channels by which North Korea could have responded in this context: regional favoritism by the ruling elites, reallocation of commerce that reflects the trade diversion to China, and import substitution. Using nighttime lights from North Korea, I find that the capital city, trade hubs near China, and manufacturing cities become relatively brighter when sanctions increase. However, production shifts away from capital-intensive goods, potentially deterring industrial development. The results imply that despite the intention to target the ruling elites, sanctions may increase regional inequality at a cost to the already marginalized hinterlands.

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Bruce Cain argues that "both parties agree that the country has serious infrastructure needs—but even with a new proposal on the table, we may end up with next to nothing." Cain explains that while permitting large infrastructure projects is a complex, time-consuming, and, at times, confusing process, America's infrastructure needs will soon need to be addressed by both parties. Read more here

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Jeremy Weinstein writes about the Trump administration's response to the ongoing refugee crisis in Foreign Policy Magazine. Weinstein explains that, for the current administration to "back up its commitment to innovation and efficiency," it could start with "A modern system of matching refugees to the communities where they are most likely to succeed could reduce costs and improve outcomes, forming a critical element of a global reform agenda for refugee resettlement." Read the full story here.

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"There is growing consensus that populism constitutes a grave threat to liberal democracy, and to the liberal international order on which peace and prosperity have rested for the past two generations," writes Francis Fukuyama in the World Economic Forum. The fate of the global liberal order could be jeopardized due to rising populist powers and movements. Read the full article here

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Transferring knowledge and skills through skilled labor has become a critical topic in contemporary migration studies. Countries that are traditionally non-immigrant destinations often turn to their diaspora communities to increase the chances of return flows and knowledge transfer. It has been almost twenty years since South Korea enacted the ‘Overseas Korean Act’ in 1999, which attracted a large number of overseas Koreans back to its shore. Yet there has been very little discussion over the policy implications and what particular ‘skills’ or contributions the returnees have brought to Korean society.

In this seminar, Jane Yeonjae Lee describes some of the research findings from her forthcoming book Quest for home: Transnational return migration of 1.5 generation Korean New Zealanders (Lexington Press, 2018). This book project, which has been based on a life-history and transnational ethnographic research with 49 Korean return migrants, partly investigates the implications for global knowledge transfer through skilled mobilities. Lee will discuss a number of different pathways of returnees’ particular influences on Korean society, and how their certain knowledge and skills can be transferred, hindered, or mutated.

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yeonjae lee
Jane Yeonjae Lee is an interdisciplinary qualitative researcher and her research revolves around transnationalism, migrant communities, mobilities, health, and urban environmental politics. In particular, she is interested in understanding the migratory experiences of highly skilled immigrants and how their mobile lives connect and shape the places of migration they move through. Her work has been featured in academic journals such as Health and Place; New Zealand Geographer; and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. She has also contributed to key texts in the field of geography including Elgar Handbook on Medical Tourism and Patient Mobility; Researching the Lifecourse: Critical reflections from the social sciences; and Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America. Lee holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Auckland. Dr. Lee is currently a visiting scholar at Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. 

616 Serra StreetEncina Hall E301Stanford, CA94305-6055
(650) 723-6530
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yeonjae_lee.jpg Ph.D.

Jane Lee joins the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center as a Visiting Scholar during the 2017-18 academic year. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Northeastern University working in a global comparative project on exploring sustainable mobilities policies.

Jane is an interdisciplinary qualitative researcher and her research revolves around transnationalism and migration, skilled mobilities, and social policies. In particular, she is interested in understanding the mobile (and marginalized) experiences of migratory groups, and how the particular mobilities of people and ideas may affect the places that are involved. Her work has been featured in academic journals such as Health and Place, and New Zealand Geographer. She has also contributed to key texts in the field of Geography including Elgar Handbook on Medical Tourism and Patient Mobility, Researching the Lifecourse: Critical reflections from the social sciences, and Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America. During her time at Shorenstein APARC, Jane will participate as a paper author in the Koret Workshop and other center activities.

Jane holds a PhD and BA(Hons) in Geography from the University of Auckland. She also currently serves as an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Auckland. 

 

Recent Publications:

Lee, J.Y. (2017) ‘Being non-Christian in a Christian community: Experiences of Belonging and Identity among Korean Americans’, Institute of Asian American Studies Publications. 43.

Lee, J.Y., Friesen, W. and Kearns, R. (2015) ‘Return migration of 1.5 generation Korean New Zealanders: Long term and Short term reasons’, NZ Geographer, 71, 34-44.

Lee, J.Y., Kearns, R. and Friesen, W. (2015) ‘Diasporic medical return’, In Lunt, N., Hanefeld, J. and Horsfall, D. (Eds) Elgar Handbook on Medical Tourism and Patient Mobility. London: Elgar, (p.207-216).

Lee, J.Y. (2015) ‘Narratives of the Korean New Zealanders’ return migration: Taking a life history approach’, In Worth, N. and Hardill, I. (Eds) Researching the Lifecourse: Critical reflections from the social sciences. Bristol: Policy Press, (p.183-198). (Invited Contribution)

Lee, J.Y. (2015) ‘Korean Americans: Entrepreneurship and religion’, In Miyares, I. and Airriess, C. (Eds) Contemporary Ethnic Geographies in America (2nd Edition). Rowan & Littlefield Publishing Group, (p.285-302) (Invited Contribution)

Lee, J.Y. (2015) ‘Returning Diasporas: Korean New Zealander returnees’ journeys of searching ‘home’ and identity’ In Christou, A. and Mavroudi, E. (Eds) Dismantling diasporas: rethinking the geographies of diasporic identity, connection and development. London: Ashgate, (p.161-174).

Lee, J.Y. (2011) ‘A trajectory perspective towards return migration and development: The case of young Korean New Zealander returnees’, In Frank, R., Hoare, J., Kollner, P. and Pares, S. (Eds) Korea: Politics, Economy and Society. Danvers: Brill, (p.233-256).

Lee, J.Y., Kearns, R. and Friesen, W. (2010), ‘Seeking affective health care: Korean immigrants’ use of homeland medical services’, Health and Place, 16 (1), 108-115.

Visiting Scholar
<i>Visiting Scholar, APARC, Stanford University</i>
Seminars
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Symposium on "History of US-Japan Relations"

March 6, 2018

Philippines Conference Room

Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center (Stanford University)

 

Program

9:00am     Registration and Breakfast
 

9:30am     Welcome Remark
                 Takeo Hoshi (Stanford University)
 

9:40am  Session 1: From Perry to the War with China

Presenter:
Kaoru Iokibe (University of Tokyo)

Discussant:
Peter Duus (Stanford University)
 

10:40am  Break
 

11:00am  Session 2: Pacific War and Occupation

Presenter:
Fumiaki Kubo (University of Tokyo)

Discussant:
Kenji Kushida (Stanford University)

 

12:00pm  Lunch
 

1:00pm   Session 3: Pax Americana and Japan's Postwar Resurgence

Presenter:
Makoto Iokibe (Prefectural University of Kumamoto and Hyogo)

Discussant:
Tsuneo Akaha (Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey)

 

2:00pm   Session 4: Neoliberalism and Redefinition of the US-Japan Alliance

Presenter:
Masayuki Tadokoro (Keio University)

Discussant:
Michael Armacost (Stanford University)

 

3:00pm  Break
 

3:20pm   Session 5: US-Japan Leadership Today

Presenter:
Koji Murata (Doshisha University)

Discussant:
Phillip Lipscy (Stanford University)

 

4:20pm   Closing Remark
              
Makoto Iokibe (Prefectural University of Kumamoto and Hyogo)


 

Symposiums
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Abstract:

The world is in turmoil. From India to Turkey and from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result, Yascha Mounk shows, democracy itself may hang in the balance.

Using his own original research and on-the-ground reporting from countries around the world, Mounk makes clear in THE PEOPLE VS. DEMOCRACY what exactly is at risk if the current trends in America and Western Europe continue. Astounding numbers of people in all age, economic, and social groups are more open to military rule, media controls, and other hallmarks of authoritarianism than ever before.
    
“Under these radically changed circumstances, it would be foolhardy to assume that the stability of democracy is sure to persist,” Mounk writes in his introduction. “The first big assumption of the postwar era—the idea that rich countries in which the government had repeatedly changed hands through free and fair elections would forever remain democratic—has all along stood on shaky ground.”

Mounk shows that the two core components of liberal democracy—individual rights and the popular will—are increasingly at war with each other. As the role of money in politics soared and important issues were taken out of public contestation, a system of “rights without democracy” took hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create something just as bad: a system of “democracy without rights.”

The consequence, Mounk writes, is that trust in politics is dwindling. Citizens are falling out of love with their political system. Democracy is wilting away. Drawing on vivid stories and original research, Mounk identifies three key drivers of voters’ discontent: stagnating living standards, fears of multiethnic democracy, and the rise of social media. To reverse the trend, politicians need to enact radical reforms that benefit the many, not the few.

 

Speaker Bio:

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yascha mounk
Yascha Mounk is a Lecturer on Government at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow at New America.

A columnist at Slate and the host of The Good Fight podcast, he is a leading expert on the rise of populism and the crisis of liberal democracy.

 

 

 

 

 

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Yascha Mounk Lecturer on Government at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow at New America
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