Abstract
Our democratic creed is predicated on the possibility of improving the organization and the ability of citizens to achieve their purposes and to better their lot. (This text was first published as: Reychler (1999). Reprinted with permission.) Efforts by the international community, however, do not always result in successes; there have been failures (March/Olsen in Democratic Governance. The Free Press, New York, 1995). These failures indicate that although we have acquired a lot of insight into the processes of change, we still do not know enough to be confident that the effects we produce will be intelligent ones. Some lessons from recent experiences and concrete proposals for coping with the problems are discussed in this part of the report.
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Notes
- 1.
This text was first published as: Reychler (1999). Reprinted with permission.
- 2.
Bad democracies are better than authoritarian rule or political chaos since they contain the potential for gradual, peaceful improvements.
- 3.
Time is a tactical resource. Regime opponents have good reasons to wish for a speedy transition, and frequently so do secessionists.
- 4.
- 5.
Overall, the influence that economic assessments have on regime support falls far short of endorsing a theory of economic determinism. Although economic attitudes matter, other influences matter as well. The economy is important but only as part of the explanation of support for current and alternative regimes.
- 6.
A good example is the evaluation plan suggested by Paula Garb of the Global Peace and Conflict Studies programme at the University of California (UCI) for a project on “Cross conflict NGO capacity-building in Tbilisi and Sukhumi” in Georgia. Her evaluation consists of: (a) a content analysis of diaries kept by the project director and the coordinators, all correspondence among the partners and with others, and media reports on the project activities, and on all other NGO activities. These data will be used to document changes and the degree to which this project and related NGO activities have impacted the NGO sector’s development and facilitation of the democratic peace process; (b) surveys of the participants in the joint workshops and parallel seminars. These are intended to help determine what the participants have learned from the planned activities and whether they have incorporated the newly gained experiences in their organizational activities to the benefit of NGO education in human rights and humanitarian law.
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Reychler, L., Langer, A. (2020). Lessons Learned from Recent Democratization Efforts. In: Reychler, L., Langer, A. (eds) Luc Reychler: A Pioneer in Sustainable Peacebuilding Architecture. Pioneers in Arts, Humanities, Science, Engineering, Practice, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40208-2_8
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