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Map of Middle East |
CIAO DATE: 03/05
December 2004
Table of Contents
Front cover (PDF, 2 pages, 558.4 Kb)
Table of Contents (PDF, 2 pages, 468.4 Kb)
From the Editor-in-Chief by Dorin Tudoran (PDF, 1 page, 86.7 Kb)
Resources for the Professional (PDF, 1 page, 113.2 Kb)
In Brief (PDF, 1 page, 125.6 Kb)
Beyond Democracy
Stealing Privatization by John A. Gould (PDF, 2 pages, 145.4 Kb)
Assume a small entrepreneur realizes that garbage in her neighbor's backyard is reducing her annual revenue by $1,000. If she pays a garbage company to remove the refuse for less than $1,000 she will be better off. Indeed, even if she pays $999 a year for the clean up, she will still raise her total benefi t by $1.
Ridendo Castigat Mores
Chastise Manners With a Smile by Alex Dimitrov (PDF, 1 page, 363.1 Kb)
Fieldwork
The Changing Face of Post-Communist Corruption by Miklos Marschall (PDF, 3 pages, 654.2 Kb)
Corruption—the abuse of public trust for illicit, private benefi t—has been identifi ed as one of the toughest obstacles to successful transition in post-communist countries. Public opinion in Central and Eastern Europe generally holds that transition has unfairly enriched only a narrow elite, many from the old communist hierarchy. This disenchantment with a freer political and economic system arises from a blend of naive expectations and disgust with graft. It is still diffi cult for many Eastern Europeans to accept that capitalism creates entrepreneurs who are very visibly rich—a completely unfamiliar sight during the long years of communism despite that system’s pervasive corruption. What happened during the transition was that corruption was “monetarized.” In Ivan Krastev’s words, “Éthe transition from communism to post-communism was one from a ‘do me a favor society’ to a ‘give me a bribe society.’”
A Catalyst For Change in New Democracies by Yulia Savchenko (PDF, 2 pages, 234.1 Kb)
With the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, newly independent Kyrgyzstan chose the path towards democratic development. More than a decade later, we are still very far from our goal. Instead, we have a “super-president,” who dominates the political arena, and a parliament and judicial system dependent on the executive branch. We face human rights abuses, governmental corruption and desperate poverty as a result of the unfair political tactics of our of- fi cials. Very few people in Kyrgyzstan have a clear sense of their rights or possess the motivation to exercise those rights in their daily lives. In response to this situation, journalists in Kyrgyzstan are increasingly trying to educate the population about democratic values, the rights of citizens and the problems we face in securing these rights and values. Journalists must encourage public involvement in political life through a new philosophy of the press: civic journalism.
Portrait of the Next Generation by Nadia Diuk (PDF, 2 pages, 257.9 Kb)
Who are the members of the next generation of the countries in the former Soviet Union? What are their aspirations? Will they strive for justice, freedom and equality? How much do they trust the government and its institutions? What effect has independent statehood had on the youth in the various republics, and how far have they diverged from each other? How much has the past influenced their values and expectations?
Thinking Out Loud
Was it Worth the Fight? by Vladimir Tismaneanu (PDF, 2 pages, 175.5 Kb)
Fifteen years ago, who could have imagined that countries belonging to the Warsaw Pact would become NATO members? Who could have dreamt that these countries would enter the European Union? And yet these things have happened as a result of the events that led to the collapse of Leninist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989 and the demise of the USSR in 1991. The following years of post-communist transition were marked by high expectations and noble dreams of justice, equality and freedom-as well as anxieties, frustrations and deep disappointments. Nevertheless, what was once behind the Iron Curtain has become a region of democratic change and potential, one that saw the Ukrainian “Orange Revolution” and the end of the Iliescu era in Romania in the last months of 2004.
In Search of Standards by Marcin Walecki (PDF, 2 pages, 168.9 Kb)
While both the experience of practitioners and the scholarly literature suggest that there is no simple path to democracy, dismantling communist regimes has been particularly complex because it required the simultaneous transition of political and economic systems. Over the past 15 years, some post-communist states have evolved towards democracy, others towards renewed authoritarianism, and still others towards a perplexing mix of democracy, arbitrary governance and kleptocracy. The results have been a series of hybrid polities with both democratic and anti-democratic characteristics. While these countries have successfully begun the transition, they fall short of democratic consolidation in important ways, in part because they have not yet established standards of transparency and accountability adequate to govern political society or political finance.
And Now, To Govern by Don Pressley (PDF, 3 pages, 728.1 Kb)
As I watched the dramatic events unfold in Ukraine this December, I reflected on the important work of democracy groups in similar situations throughout post-communist Europe and Eurasia since 1989. Given the significant political successes in the region, I feel considerable pride in having led USAID's Europe & Eurasia Bureau, which provided millions of dollars to fund democracy proponents in formerly communist countries.