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Diamond: Facing up to the democratic recession

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In the 25th anniversary edition of The Journal of Democracy, CDDRL Director Larry Diamond reflects on the current democratic recession and why this trend is so troubling.

Diamond, who serves as the founding co-editor of The Journal of Democracy, argues that the world is in a mild but protracted democratic recession, which raises alarm due to the rate of democratic failures and where they are occurring. In surveying global empirical trends, Diamond cites 25 breakdowns of democracy since 2000 that were not the cause of military coups but rather the slow erosion of democratic rights and procedures.

Another worrisome trend for Diamond is the declining freedom in a number of countries and regions since 2005. This is most notable in Africa where corruption and the abuse of power are leading to the decline of the rule of law and political rights across the region. It is also affecting countries of global strategic importance with large populations and economic influence– from Taiwan to Mexico – and leading to the resurgence of authoritarianism in Russia and China. Diamond also looks to the U.S. where the dysfunction and breakdown of American democracy sets a bad precedent for the rest of the world. 

Diamond concludes on an optimistic note, stressing that strong public support for democracy may reverse many of these troubling trends and help sustain longer-term democratic progress.

img 9597 From left to right: Thomas Carothers, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Hertie School of Governance (Berlin); Marc Plattner, National Endowment for Democracy; Larry Diamond, Stanford University; Steven Levitsky, Harvard University; and Lucan Way, University of Toronto.

 

 

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Larry Diamond speaks to a large audience in Washington, D.C., for the 25th anniversary of the Journal of Democracy. Other speakers at the event included: Thomas Carothers (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Alina Mungiu-Pippidi (Hertie School of Governance-Berlin), Marc Plattner (National Endowment for Democracy), Steven Levitsky (Harvard University), and Lucan Way (University of Toronto).
Scott Henrichsen
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Reforming Ukraine's Universities During a Crisis

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***Note LOCATION CHANGE to GUNN 101 in Stanford Business School.***

 

Speaker Bio

 
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Serhiy Kvit, Rector of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and outspoken blogger on higher education reform, became Ukraine’s Minister of Education and Science in March 2014.  He worked quickly with the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament) to enact the Law on Higher Education, to give much greater autonomy to the country’s universities and bring Ukrainian universities into compliance with the Bologna Agreement.  The military conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas has since caused internal displacement of university scholars and students and scientific researchers, while economic crisis hampers the government’s ability to implement needed reforms.  Minister Kvit will discuss the conditions and prospects for Ukrainian education and science in a time of economic and security uncertainty.
 

Serhiy Kvit has been Ukraine’s Minister of Education and Science since February of 2014. He became President of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in 2007 and was Dean of Social Studies from 2002 to 2007. He founded the Kyiv-Mohyla School of Journalism in 2001 and became president of the Media Reform Centre, which was founded to initiate open debate and promote transparency in government media. He also served as chair of the Consortium on University Autonomy from 2005 to 2010. Kvit has a Ph.D from the Ukrainian Free University and also holds a doctorate in philology. He was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to Ohio University in 2006 and 2007, a Kennan Institute scholarship winner at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC in 2009, and held a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) scholarship at the University of Cologne in 2010. He has published several books and numerous articles and, prior to his appointment as Minister, maintained a regular blog for University World News.

 

*This event is co-sponsored with the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.*

GUNN Building 101

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Serhiy Kvit Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine
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Women in Policy

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Event Description

Join us to hear from female speakers with experience at all levels of policy-making, learn about the challenges that women face in the political arena, and explore solutions to gender inequality. 

This panel will be moderated by Professor Shelley Correll.

This event is sponsored by the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Stanford in Government; and the Women's Community Center. 

 

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Bechtel Conference Center, Encina Hall

Congresswoman Jackie Speier United States Representative 14th Congressional District, California
Kimberly Ellis Executive Director EMERGE California
Karina Kloos Stanford Department of Sociology
Shelley Correll (moderator) Director Clayman Institute for Gender Research
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Arab Reform and Democracy Speaker Series

The Program on Arab Reform and Democracy (ARD) speaker series seeks to promote critical discussions around questions of political change, social and economic rights, power and resistance in the countries of the Arab world. Scholars from across disciplines are invited to present new, innovative research that sheds light on the nuances of ongoing, salient developments and trends in the Arab world, while situating them in a rich historical context.

Embittered Authoritarianism: Contemporary Malaysia in Comparative Perspective

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Malaysia has long had an authoritarian (UMNO/BN) regime strong enough to allow it to concede democratic reforms without conceding electoral defeat. Unlike its authoritarian counterparts in Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, and now Burma/Myanmar, however, Malaysia’s regime has thus far eschewed this surprisingly common Asian strategy of “democracy through strength.” Professor  Slater will discuss how and why Malaysia’s rulers have responded to their regime’s gradual decline with the rhetoric but not the substance of democratic reform.

 

SPEAKER BIO

Dan Slater is an associate member of the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago, in addition to his professorship in Political Science. He is the author of "Ordering Power: Contentious Politics and Authoritarian Leviathans in Southeast Asia" (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics, 2010) and co-editor of "Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis" (Stanford, 2008). He has also published articles in journals including the American Journal of Political Science, the American Journal of Sociology, Comparative Politics, Critical Asian Studies, International Organization, the Journal of Democracy, Perspectives on Politics, and World Politics.

 

                                               ** This event is co-sponsored with the South East Asia Program **

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Okimoto Conference Room

Encina Hall 3rd Floor, East Wing

616 Serra Street, Stanford University

Dan Slater Associate Professor University of Chicago
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Douglas Rutzen, president and CEO of ICNL, speaks on defending civil society

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Douglas Rutzen, president and CEO of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), and adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., gave a talk on defending civil society for the Stanford Program on Human Rights’ Winter Speaker Series, “U.S. Human Rights NGOs and International Human Rights,” on January 7, 2015.

Rutzen sounded the alarm of today’s disturbing trend of governments around the world using the rule of law to restrict civic spaces of congregation and protestation. Highlighting that national governments are constitutionally committed to a rule of law, Rutzen claimed this is not being applied in the interests of the citizen but rather to restrict citizens’ criticism of government. Rutzen emphasized that this misuse of the rule of law to restrict civil society is a tool of manipulation utilized not just by nations with a history of civic control, such as Cuba and Russia, but also by liberal democracies, including the United States.

Rutzen noted that the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) established in 2000 were dramatically altered by the attacks of September 11, 2001. NGOs were targeted as potential terrorist organizations, while at the same time recognized for their potential to fight terrorism. This contradiction shows the tension in the role of NGOs in civil society. The challenge now lies in a long-term transformation of the relationship between NGOs representing civil society and national governments.

The talk continued with a discussion with Helen Stacy, director of the Program on Human Rights, and Rutzen. Stacy posed provocative questions that challenged Rutzen to defend his stance with questions on U.S. cultural imperialism; “good” and “bad” civil society groups; and the need to understand domestic civil society engagement with human rights issues as part of international human rights activism. 

-Dana Phelps, Program Associate, Program on Human Rights

 

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The End(s) of Compassion? Buddhist Charity and the State in Taiwan

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The Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi (Ciji) Foundation from Taiwan is perhaps one of the largest Buddhist charities in the Chinese world today. This talk traces how Tzu Chi developed under the “regime of civility” in Taiwan. The same regime also contributed to the recent controversies between Tzu Chi and the Aborigines. I argue that the tension between the Buddhist non-governmental organization and the Christian Aborigines has to do with the inequality under the regime of civility: on the one hand, the Aborigines have been marginalized as the “subject” of the civility campaign by the state; and, on the other hand, the same regime of civility is what allows the Buddhist charity to thrive in civil society. This talk raises the question whether civility could turn against civil society.

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C. Julia Huang is a Professor of Anthropology at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, and currently a Visiting Scholar at the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford University. Huang has published articles in the Journal of Asian Studies, Ethnology, Positions, Nova Religio, the Eastern Buddhist, and the European Journal for East Asian Studies. Her book, Charisma and Compassion: Cheng Yen and the Buddhist Tzu Chi Movement (Harvard University Press, 2009) is an ethnography of a lay Buddhist movement that began as a tiny group in Taiwan and grew into an organization with ten million members worldwide. Huang has recently completed a book manuscript, The Social Life of Goodness: Religious Philanthropy in Chinese Societies (with Robert P. Weller and Keping Wu). She is currently working on a project on the Buddhist influences on cadaver donations for medical education in Taiwan.

 

This event is part of the Taiwan Democracy Project.

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Ends of Compassion--presentation
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C. Julia Huang Professor of Anthropology National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
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