March 13th, 2013

CDDRL director Larry Diamond expands democratic teachings beyond the Stanford classroom

In April, CDDRL Director Larry Diamond will be teaching a free 10 –week online course on comparative democratic development. The course will provide a broad and introductory survey of the political, social, cultural, economic, institutional, and international factors that foster or obstruct the development and consolidation of democracy. Read more »

March 7th, 2013

Stanford conference focuses on the role of women and international development

On March 2, the Stanford Association for International Development held their annual conference exploring the role of women in international development. Co-sponsored by CDDRL, the event featured a keynote address by Nancy Lindborg, the assistant administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance to the United States Agency for International Development. Read more »

March 4th, 2013

Stanford conference to explore right to information and technology

On March 11-12, the Program on Liberation Technology at CDDRL is convening a conference to examine digital tools and their impact on the development of democratic development. Hosted in partnership with U.C. Berkeley’s Data and Democracy Initiative, the two-day conference will bring together academics, practitioners, and policy-makers. Read more »

ARD conference takes place in Tunis, March 28-29

The Program on Arab Reform and Democracy is holding its fourth annual conference in Tunis on March 28-29. This year's conference theme 'Building Bridges: Towards Viable Democracies in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya' examines the cornerstones of democratic transition in those countries. It will address: - Constitution drafting - National dialogues and civil society - Political coalitions and Islamism - Political participation and pluralism - Economic policy - Arab relations with the USA and Europe Read more »

February 19th, 2013

Autocracy is here for now, but is it here to stay?

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia continues to struggle with governance challenges— from corruption to weak state institutions — that have stalled its democratic development writes Kathryn Stoner in a journal article for Perspectives on Politics. Stoner, CDDRL's deputy director and a FSI senior fellow, reviews five books that examine whether Russia will slip further into autocracy or step back onto its democratic path. Read more »

January 22nd, 2013

Two years after the Arab Spring, the fate of democracy is still uncertain

Two years after the events marking the Arab Spring, Hicham Ben Abdallah assesses the state of democratic development across the Middle East and North Africa in a piece for Le Monde Diplomatique and an interview with the Brazilian publication O Globo. Abdallah, a consulting professor at FSI and CDDRL, describes the stalled democratic transitions in Egypt and Tunisia, growing opposition to Arab monarchies, and the Syrian civil war that could ignite religious tensions across the region.

• » Le Monde Diplomatique, "Are the Arab monarchies next?"
• » O Globo, "There is debate about new economic opportunities" (Translated from Portuguese to English)

January 16th, 2013

Failure to protect democracy in Mali opened path for grave atrocities

As French troops deployed to Mali this week to push back Islamist rebels, CDDRL Post-Doctoral Fellow Landry Signé writes in the New York Times that the failure to restore democracy sooner has descended the country into a devilish civil war with grave humanitarian consequences. Signé argues that Mali's West African neighbors and the international community should have acted earlier to restore peace and security to a country long recognized for its democratic stability. Read more »