Stanford University

Governance

FSI's research on the origins, character and consequences of government institutions spans continents and academic disciplines. The institute’s senior fellows and their colleagues across Stanford examine the principles of public administration and implementation. Their work focuses on how maternal health care is delivered in rural China, how public action can create wealth and eliminate poverty, and why U.S. immigration reform keeps stalling. 

FSI’s work includes comparative studies of how institutions help resolve policy and societal issues. Scholars aim to clearly define and make sense of the rule of law, examining how it is invoked and applied around the world. 

FSI researchers also investigate government services – trying to understand and measure how they work, whom they serve and how good they are. They assess energy services aimed at helping the poorest people around the world and explore public opinion on torture policies. The Children in Crisis project addresses how child health interventions interact with political reform. Specific research on governance, organizations and security capitalizes on FSI's longstanding interests and looks at how governance and organizational issues affect a nation’s ability to address security and international cooperation.

Brett Carter

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Brett Carter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California, a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and a Faculty Affiliate at Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. He received a Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he was a fellow at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies.

Carter studies politics in the world's autocracies. His first book, Propaganda in Autocracies: Institutions, Information, and the Politics of Belief (Cambridge University Press), draws on the largest archive of state propaganda ever assembled — encompassing over eight million newspaper articles in six languages from nearly 60 countries around the world — to show how political institutions shape the propaganda strategies of repressive governments. It received the William Riker Prize for the Best Book in Political Economy, the International Journal of Press/Politics Hazel Gaudet-Erskine Best Book Award, Honorable Mention for the Gregory Luebbert Award for the Best Book in Comparative Politics, and Honorable Mention for the APSA Democracy & Autocracy Section's Best Book Award.

His second book, in progress, shows how politics in Africa’s autocracies changed after the fall of the Berlin Wall and how a new era of geopolitical competition — marked by the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia — is changing them again.

Carter’s other work has appeared in the Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Perspectives on Politics, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Security Studies, China Quarterly, Journal of Democracy, and Foreign Affairs, among others. His work has been featured by The New York Times, The Economist, The National Interest, and NPR’s Radiolab.

Hoover Fellow
CDDRL Affiliated Scholar
CDDRL Visiting Scholar, 2020-2021
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Fukuyama's new book reviewed in The New York Times

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CDDRL Senior Fellow Francis Fukuyama's new book "Political Order and Political Decay" was featured in a recent review in The New York Times. Tracing history from the industrial revolution to the globalization of democracy, Fukuyama argues that liberal democracy is still the best system of governance, although he warns that such systems must manage and combat institutional decay. The book will be released on September 30, 2014.

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Francis Fukuyama addresses a crowd during a conference in Tbilisi, Georgia. 1 Sept. 2014.
Government of Georgia
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Working with the Grain: Fostering Democratic Development at the Edge of Chaos

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Abstract:

“Best practices” prescriptions for democratic reform confuse the end point with the journey of getting from here to there, so  are not  useful in responding to the governance ambiguities of the early 21st century. In this seminar, Brian Levy will introduce an alternative approach laid out in his new book, Working with the Grain: Integrating Governance and Growth in Development Strategies (New York: OUP, 2014).

In many nascent democracies, power is fragmented,  the rule of law and  public bureaucracies are weak; political stability is sustained through personalized deals. The way forward in such settings is to set aside ‘best practices’, and engage with things as they actually are seeking out ‘with the grain’ opportunities for initiating a virtuous spiral of forward economic momentum and incremental, cumulative improvements in institutions. As the seminar will explore, the implications for action of this altered perspective are profound --  on  the economic front, on the institutional front and  vis-à-vis how commitment to a democratic approach to development can be sustained over the long-haul.

 

Speaker Bio: 

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Brian Levy is a Senior Adjunct Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA. He worked at the World Bank from 1989-2012, where he led the group tasked with scaling up support for public sector reform in Africa, and subsequently co-led the effort to mainstream governance and anti-corruption into the organization's operational programs.Along with Working with the Grain, he has authored, co-authored and co-edited numerous books and articles on the interactions between public institutions, the private sector and development in Africa, East Asia, and elsewhere, includingGovernance Reform: Bridging Monitoring and Action (World Bank, 2007), Building State Capacity in Africa (World Bank Institute, 2004), and (with Pablo Spiller)  Regulations, Institutions and Commitment (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996). Prior to joining the Bank he was assistant professor in development economics at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. He completed his Ph.D in economics at Harvard University in 1983.

Brian Levy Senior Adjunct Professor School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
Seminars

All Our Relations: Indigenous Rights Movements and the Bureaucratization of Indigeneity in Taiwan

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Abstract

Taiwan’s indigenous social movement, active since the 1980s, has successfully lobbied to get indigenous rights included in the Republic of China Constitution, to create a cabinet level Council of Indigenous Peoples, and to pass the 2005 Basic Law on Indigenous Peoples. Taiwan’s indigenous social activists have also become regular participants in United Nations indigenous events. Especially during the Chen Shui-bian presidency, foreign observers often suspected that the state instrumentalized “indigeneity” to claim a distinct identity from China. Events since 2008, however, demonstrate that the indigenous rights movement has maintained its own momentum and that the indigenous peoples have interests that cannot be reduced to issues of national identity or party politics. In fact, the indigenous people overwhelmingly support the KMT, and indigenous movements are involved in both “pro-unification” and “pro-independence” political networks.  Most indigenous social movement leaders, as well as ordinary indigenous people, hope that their movement can make progress in indigenous rights in ways that transcend the “blue” and “green” division between Han Taiwanese. This talk will explore the diversity of the indigenous movements, their mobilization strategies, and values since Ma Ying-jeou was elected President of the ROC in 2008.


Speaker Bio

Scott Simon holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from McGill University, and began his career working in the anthropology of development. Two separate research projects led to his books Tanners of Taiwan: Life Strategies and National Cultures (2005), as well as Sweet and Sour: Life-Worlds of Taipei Women Entrepreneurs (2003). He has worked extensively on ethnographic research with Truku and Sediq groups in both Hualien and Nantou counties of Taiwan since 2004. His third book - entitled Sadyaq Balae! L’autochtonie formosane dans tous ses états – was published in French by the Laval University Press. This book is an exploration of state-indigenous relations, including the social movements that often contest state projects on indigenous territory. He has in recent years, in annual trips to Taiwan, been working more closely with Truku-speaking trappers and hunters, who have been teaching him about ethno-biology and human-animal relations in addition to sharing their discontent about Taiwan’s legal regime that criminalizes most hunting activities. 

 

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Scott Simon Professor School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, Research Chair in Taiwan Studies, University of Ottawa
Seminars

Pascaline Dupas

Landau Economics Building, Office 238

579 Jane Stanford Wayl, Stanford, CA 94305

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Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor, Economics
Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Director, Stanford King Center on Global Development
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Pascaline Dupas is a development economist seeking to better understand challenges facing poor households in lower income countries. Her aim is to identify tools and policies that can help overcome these challenges and reduce global poverty.  Her research aims to understand the barriers that households and governments face in accumulating or fostering accumulation of health and education, and how these barriers can be overcome. She conducts extensive fieldwork — field experiments embedded in longitudinal data collection efforts, which are used to perform empirical tests of microeconomic theory and to quantify the effects of potential policies. Health is the primary focus of Dupas’ research to date. Her work covers the role of information and education in health behavior, and the role of subsidies in increasing adoption of health technologies.

 

 

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Ebola: Health, Governance, Security and Ethical Dimensions

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No RSVP necessary for this public event.

Panelists

Michele Barry, MD: Medicine and Tropical Diseases; Center for Innovation in Global Health

Doug Owens, MD: Medicine; Center for Health Policy/Primary Care Outcomes Research

David Relman, MD: Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology; Center for International Security and Cooperation

Stephen J. Stedman: Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law

Paul Wise, MD: Pediatrics; Center for Health Policy/Primary Care Outcomes Research

 

Co-sponsors:

Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Stanford University School of Medicine

Center for African Studies

Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research

Center for Innovation in Global Health

Center for International Security and Cooperation

Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law

McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society

Bechtel Conference Center

Encina Hall

Michele Barry Panelist
Doug Owens Panelist
David Relman Panelist

Stephen J. Stedman

CDDRL
Encina Hall, C152
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 725-2705 (650) 724-2996
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Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor, by courtesy, of Political Science
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Stephen Stedman is a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), an affiliated faculty member at CISAC, and professor of political science (by courtesy) at Stanford University. He is director of CDDRL's Fisher Family Honors Program in Democracy, Development and Rule of Law, and will be faculty director of the Program on International Relations in the School of Humanities and Sciences effective Fall 2025.

In 2011-12 Professor Stedman served as the Director for the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy, and Security, a body of eminent persons tasked with developing recommendations on promoting and protecting the integrity of elections and international electoral assistance. The Commission is a joint project of the Kofi Annan Foundation and International IDEA, an intergovernmental organization that works on international democracy and electoral assistance.

In 2003-04 Professor Stedman was Research Director of the United Nations High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change and was a principal drafter of the Panel’s report, A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility.

In 2005 he served as Assistant Secretary-General and Special Advisor to the Secretary- General of the United Nations, with responsibility for working with governments to adopt the Panel’s recommendations for strengthening collective security and for implementing changes within the United Nations Secretariat, including the creation of a Peacebuilding Support Office, a Counter Terrorism Task Force, and a Policy Committee to act as a cabinet to the Secretary-General.

His most recent book, with Bruce Jones and Carlos Pascual, is Power and Responsibility: Creating International Order in an Era of Transnational Threats (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 2009).

Director, Fisher Family Honors Program in Democracy, Development and Rule of Law
Director, Program in International Relations
Affiliated faculty at the Center for International Security and Cooperation
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Paul H. Wise

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Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society
Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
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Dr. Paul Wise is dedicated to bridging the fields of child health equity, public policy, and international security studies. He is the Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society and Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology and Developmental Medicine, and Health Policy at Stanford University. He is also co-Director, Stanford Center for Prematurity Research and a Senior Fellow in the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, and the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. Wise is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been working as the Juvenile Care Monitor for the U.S. Federal Court overseeing the treatment of migrant children in U.S. border detention facilities.

Wise received his A.B. degree summa cum laude in Latin American Studies and his M.D. degree from Cornell University, a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and did his pediatric training at the Children’s Hospital in Boston. His former positions include Director of Emergency and Primary Care Services at Boston Children’s Hospital, Director of the Harvard Institute for Reproductive and Child Health, Vice-Chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and was the founding Director or the Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention, Stanford University School of Medicine. He has served in a variety of professional and consultative roles, including Special Assistant to the U.S. Surgeon General, Chair of the Steering Committee of the NIH Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research, Chair of the Strategic Planning Task Force of the Secretary’s Committee on Genetics, Health and Society, a member of the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, and the Health and Human Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality.

Wise’s most recent U.S.-focused work has addressed disparities in birth outcomes, regionalized specialty care for children, and Medicaid. His international work has focused on women’s and child health in violent and politically complex environments, including Ukraine, Gaza, Central America, Venezuela, and children in detention on the U.S.-Mexico border.  

Core Faculty, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Affiliated faculty at the Center for International Security and Cooperation
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Panel Discussions

Diamond: 'A sad day for Hong Kong and democracy'

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In the wake of a decision that would restrict nominations for the upcoming 2017 Hong Kong elections, CDDRL Director Larry Diamond slams Beijing for ignoring the demands of the people and stunting the democratic progress that many have struggled for in recent years. Diamond states in the South China Morning Post article that the decision marks a 'sad day for Hong Kong,' claiming it as the 'worst outcome imaginable' for the pro-democracy movement.

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Pro-democracy protesters hold up their mobile phones during a campaign to kick off the Occupy Central civil disobedience event in front of the financial Central district in Hong Kong. August 31, 2014.
Bobby Yip, Reuters
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Francis Fukuyama on America in decay

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Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow Francis Fukuyama shares a glimpse of his forthcoming volume of The Origins of Political Order in a recent journal article for Foreign Affairs. Referencing various historical accounts of public administration pitfalls and triumphs, Fukuyama dissects the intricate web of political gridlock confronting American government today. 

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President Obama addresses Congress on September 9, 2009.
Lawrence Jackson; www.whitehouse.gov
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Coalition against corruption

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About the Conference

CoCo 2014 was the inaugural edition of the Coalition against Corruption (CoCo) conference co-hosted by The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, Bangalore and Sunlight Foundation, Washington DC. 

CoCo brought together participants from over fifteen countries and across a wide spectrum comprising researchers and academics, elected representatives, government officials, practitioners, civil society organisations, technologists and citizens. 

Over three days, we engaged in conversations on a wide range of issues on the following corruption types: 

  • Corruption in public resource allocation
  • Political financing and lobbying
  • Corruption in public procurement
  • Retail corruption in public services for citizens

CoCo 2014 explored these corruption-types in an innovative format across the themes of rule of law, tools of transparency and accountability and the impact of grassroots pressure groups and digital platforms. 

Besides the four plenaries, CoCo allowed plenty of time for short presentations, for showcasing practitioner successes and for open group discussions. Part of the agenda was also an “Unconference” session for surfacing and discussing critical challenges that went beyond the four corruption-types in focus at CoCo. 

Conference Partners

 

Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (Janaagraha) is a Bangalore based not for profit organisation committed to transforming quality of life in India’s cities and towns. 

Janaagraha defines quality of life not just as quality of infrastructure and services, but also as quality of citizenship in a democracy. Along with its sister organisation Jana Urban Space Foundation, it runs multiple programs on transforming cities and citizenship. These programmes are based on a Theory of Change built around a City-Systems framework that Janaagraha has developed over many years of grassroots work with citizens, and reforms advocacy with government for scalable and sustainable change. 

The Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan non-profit founded in 2006 that uses the power of the Internet to catalyse greater government openness and transparency. It does so by creating tools, open data, policy recommendations, journalism and grant opportunities to dramatically expand access to vital government information. Its vision is to use technology to enable more complete, equitable and effective democratic participation.
 

Sunlight Foundation is a leading innovator in the transparency and accountability space, bringing greater government transparency by engaging individual citizens and communities - technologists, policy analysts, open government advocates and ordinary citizens to demand policies that ensure government accountability. 

Conference Video Playlist

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Bangalore, India

Conferences
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