“Only connect“, wrote E.M. Forster. “Live in fragments no longer.” The renowned novelist could have written the theme of this week’s Prague democracy meeting opened by a celebrated dramatist.
“Only coordinate” was the consistent refrain from this week’s Prague conference on Building Consensus on EU Policies on Democracy Support, organized by the Czech Presidency of the European Union , the European Partnership for Democracy and Demas, the Czech democracy NGO. Delegates bemoaned the lack of coordination between the EU institutions – the European Commission, Council of Ministers and the European Parliament; between the EU and member states; between member states themselves, including their diplomatic missions; between the EU, member states and democracy assistance groups; and between the development, human rights and democracy communities.
Europe’s diversity can be a blessing and a strength – 27 different forms of democracy within the EU confirm the absence of a one-size-fits-all model. The EU is the world’s greatest promoter of democracy, delegates heard, but duplicated initiatives – even competing programs – too often generate a waste of resources and minimize political impact.
The European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights, the EU’s principal instrument for targeted democracy assistance, has been criticized for overly bureaucratic and time-consuming procedures, and for requiring host-country approval for funding democracy projects, in effect giving authoritarian regimes a veto over support for democratic and independent civil society actors. But, the conference heard, EIDHR has streamlined procedures and changed protocols, allowing for the funding of independent organizations – even individuals – without legal approval from host governments.
EIDHR’s reach is genuinely global In scope, but that may also be a weakness. Resources and attention could be better focused on key states where the EU and member states might generate critical mass and sufficient leverage to have a genuine impact, one analyst argued. The EU’s largely developmental approach, stressing incrementalism and incentives over sanctions and conditionality, was “not working”. The EU placed a disproportionate focus on state capacity building without a corresponding insistence on state accountability. Commendable policies on promoting democracy, empowering civil society, and securing good governance were not reflected in practice and consistently failed to address the “underlying structures of power: in non-democratic states.
Some states – like Sweden – are revamping development assistance to incorporate democratic imperatives. The Visegrad states have adopted a more energetic and principled commitment to democracy assistance, with governments working closely with leading democracy assistance NGOs like the Czech People in Need and Slovakia’s Pontis Foundation. The Dutch foreign ministry, amongst others, urged a more judicious combination of developmental and political approaches to democracy support.
Germany’s ministry for economic development committed 360m euros to the political foundations (stiftungen) in 2007 alone, but relatively little was designated explicitly for democracy assistance. Indeed, the foundations, renowned for their role in southern Europe’s democratic transitions in the 1970s, are now more ambivalent about promoting democracy. The head of one foundation went so far as to tell one researcher that they could never join an organization with the word ‘democracy’ in its title.
There are compelling reasons for incorporating democracy into the developmental agenda, delegates heard. Economic development can secure freedom from, Amartya Sen has observed, but not freedom to. Even the poorest want and need a voice. Democracy remains the most effective and peaceful means for sustaining development, for ensuring the equitable distribution of its benefits and for mediating conflicting interests.
As Paul Collier’s new book confirms, without the checks and balances of genuine “thick” democracy, corrupt elites will continue to steal votes and undermine development efforts. Similarly, a panelist observed, in the absence of empowered democratic actors, an independent civil society, and the norms and institutions that ensure accountability, development initiatives will amount to less than the sum of their parts.
The conference, organized by the Czech Presidency of the EU, the European Partnership for Democracy and Demas, the Czech democracy NGO, concludes today with its recommendations being considered by representatives of EU member states.
Recent Comments