May 2nd, 2012

Stanford conference to explore indigenous rights in Latin America

The Program on Human Rights (PHR) at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) together with the Center for Latin American Studies is hosting a one-day conference on Tuesday, May 8 2012 at Stanford University to shed light on the important human rights issues indigenous populations face in Latin America. Read more »

May 28th, 2009

After America: How Iraq can ensure stability and achieve reconciliation

As the date of the American withdrawal from Iraq approaches, there are four key imperatives that must be addressed and important goals to be achieved to help assure that recent progress will not be reversed once the American withdrawal takes place, CDDRL Director and FSI Senior Fellow Larry Diamond argues in a recent op ed in the Arabic magazine, The Majalla. Read more »

September 22nd, 2008

Former president to develop 20-year social agenda for democracy in Latin America

Dr. Alejandro Toledo, former president of Peru, describes his vision as "democracy that delivers." "My colleagues and I who have taken that challenge of public life as a vocation and life commitment," Toledo says, "cannot but feel concerned about the great challenges faced by our continent where half its population lives between poverty and misery and where inequalities and social exclusion are at their highest." Audio transcript available presentation available
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May 18th, 2008

Alejandro Toledo delivers third Payne lecture with call to action

In the third of three Payne Distinguished lectures under the heading of "Can the Poor Afford Democracy? A Presidential Perspective" former president of Peru Alejandro Toledo announced he was moving from theory and analysis to action, and planned to devote the rest of his life to ending poverty and social exclusion in Latin America. Twelve former presidents from Latin America have joined Toledo to develop a social agenda for democracy for the next 20 years and construct a matrix of key indicators to measure progress toward concrete goals. Audio transcript available presentation available
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May 7th, 2008

Tom Friedman features Diamond, his new book in NYT column

"There are two important recessions going on in the world today," writes Thomas Friedman in the New York Times May 7. One is the economic recession, and the other is what FSI senior fellow Larry Diamond terms the "democratic recession." Friedman extensively discusses Diamond and the concept of democratic recession as laid out in his new book, The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World. Read more »

January 22nd, 2008

Larry Diamond releases a new book, The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World

In his new book, The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World (Times Books 2008), Larry Diamond intensely scrutinizes the global effort on democracy promotion.

• » The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World
• » Book TV on C-SPAN2 (February 23, 2008)

November 29th, 2006

Professor Weinstein publishes a new book: "Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence"

"Some rebel groups abuse noncombatant populations, while others exhibit restraint. Insurgent leaders in some countries transform local structures of government, while others simply extract resources for their own benefit. In some contexts, groups kill their victims selectively, while in other environments violence appears indiscriminate, even random. This book presents a theory that accounts for the different strategies pursued by rebel groups in civil war, explaining why patterns of insurgent violence vary so much across conflicts. It does so by examining the membership, structure, and behavior of four insurgent movements in Uganda, Mozambique, and Peru. Drawing on interviews with nearly two hundred combatants and civilians who experienced violence firsthand, it shows that rebels' strategies depend in important ways on how difficult it is to launch a rebellion. The book thus demonstrates how characteristics of the environment in which rebellions emerge constrain rebel organization and shape the patterns of violence that civilians experience." Jeremy Weinstein, Cambridge University Press

• » Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence