1 Events

Local election commission members prepare to count ballots at a polling station during presidential elections in Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 15, 2003. Voters in this oil-rich Caspian Sea coast state voted on a successor to the incumbent President Geidar Aliev.

AP Photo

Seminar - Open to the Public

The Taming of Democracy Assistance

Thu., Dec. 1, 2011 | 12:15pm - 2:00pm

Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

Many government programs to aid democracy abroad today are not designed to foster short- or even medium-term changes in target countries' democracy levels. Instead, today's template of democracy assistance activities emphasizes technical programs that do not threaten the non-democratic regimes of the target countries. That template contrasts with the more confrontational aid projects to dissidents, political parties, and trade unions that dominated the early era of democracy assistance in the 1980s. What explains the taming of democracy assistance?

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.