Project on Democratic Transitions

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The postcommunist world has undergone dramatic change since the fall of the Berlin Wall sixteen years ago. The varying track records of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) states, the Baltic countries, and the former Soviet and Yugoslav states offer increasingly clear patterns of success and failure in the quest for democratic governance and open economies. The Project on Democratic Transitions will identify key lessons learned from the first sixteen years of reform effort in postcommunist Europe and Eurasia, translate these lessons into more effective approaches to reform, and promote actions that accelerate sustainable reform in the less advanced transitional states of the region. [read detailed project overview]

Scope

The Project will identify key lessons learned from the first 16 years of reform effort in post-communist Europe and Eurasia, and translate these lessons into more effective reform policies and actions in the less consolidated transitional states of the region.

Why?

We now have a sixteen-year track record for the region’s most advanced transitional states, plus substantial data for the more problematic reform efforts in the former Soviet and Yugoslav states. These data show increasingly compelling patterns of success and failure. Furthermore, it seems clear that many of the strategies that worked in Central and Eastern Europe are potentially transferable, initially to “mixed cases” such as Ukraine, Georgia, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia. Longer-term they are also applicable in Belarus, Russia and other entrenched autocracies of the region. Yet, despite the many country studies and analyses of economic, social and other aspects, there is little integrated analysis for the region as a whole — and virtually none address the key operational and policy issues key to achieving sustainability. The Project’s goal is to fill this void.

Who?

A key feature of the Project is its Transatlantic Steering Group (TSG), composed of senior European and American practitioners, scholars and policy analysts experienced in post-authoritarian reform (see separate list). The TSG bridges the key divides that have slowed the process of integrating the information now available on post-communist transitions, and of translating it into practical action. The TSG is chaired by Ambassador Adrian A. Basora and assisted by a staff based at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

How?

The Project’s emphasis is on developing practical guidelines to assist reform leaders, advocates and policy-makers on both sides of the Atlantic. Its initial 2-year work plan is organized around several topical seminars, plus a concluding conference to bring together an integrated set of conclusions. Project findings and recommendations will be aggressively promoted through the print and electronic media, and by TSG members with links to senior policy officials in Europe and the U.S. or with personal networks among reform practitioners, intellectuals and others who influence the region. One anticipated “deliverable” is a user-friendly guidebook on democratic transitions designed to assist reform advocates and leaders on the front lines and policy-makers and practitioners in Brussels, Washington and other relevant capitals.

In a second phase of the Project, the TSG would ideally become an ongoing mechanism for updating and promoting the Project's initial conclusions, and for assisting the region's next generation of democratic transition leaders and linking them to Western policy-molders and analysts on both sides of the Atlantic. Additionally, the Project would explore the applicability of the Europe/Eurasia experience to selected countries in other regions of the world. (3/30/06)