Why did state-building efforts in Afghanistan fail? In a CDDRL Seminar Series talk, University of Pittsburgh Professor of Public and International Affairs Jennifer Brick Mutrazashvili argued that the answer lies in the bureaucratic legacies the country inherited from the Soviet era.

Building on her fieldwork in Afghanistan and long engagement with relevant stakeholders on the ground, Murtazashvili explained that the country’s domestic institutions remained static even after the 2001 US-led intervention. Even though presidential elections were convened and a nominally democratic process was put in place, Afghan political institutions retained their longstanding feature. That is, power remained centralized by the executive without any meaningful devolution of authority to subnational structures, notwithstanding the persistence of informal governance bodies at the local level in some parts of the country.

Executive centralization of power was due to the persistence of governance patterns dating back to the Soviet era. These patterns were shaped by the influx of Soviet aid beginning in the 1950s. Soviet influence helped build highly centralized and dysfunctional institutions, which persisted through 2001. Instead of restructuring these institutions after 2001, the international community worked to preserve their centralized features, fearing that decentralization could empower local warlords. This approach aligned with the interest of national leaders who saw centralization as key to their hold on power and control over state resources. 

The Afghan public was uneasy about continued centralization. Public opinion data underscored the widespread sentiment that opportunities for participation in government were limited. People wanted to be represented by local leaders. Numerous protests broke out when the Kabul national leadership handed governorships to individuals hailing from regions other than the ones they were tasked with governing. 

These dynamics deepened feelings of disenfranchisement among communities residing outside the capital. Participation in elections declined as Afghans were disillusioned by the lack of change. With the waning of trust in democratic institutions and people failing to experience tangible change in how they are governed, the political fortunes of the Taliban grew. 

State building, Murtazashvili argued, failed in breaking from the Soviet-era legacies of centralization.

On Wednesday, December 6, Larry Diamond, the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), delivered the twentieth annual Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World on “Power, Performance, and Legitimacy: Renewing Global Democratic Momentum” in Washington, D.C.

The Lipset Lecture was inaugurated in 2004 by the International Forum for Democratic Studies at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the Munk School for Global Affairs at the University of Toronto as an important new forum for discourse on democracy and its progress worldwide. It is also co-sponsored by the Embassy of Canada to the United States.

The lecture was followed by a conversation between Diamond and Democratic Leader of Belarus Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, moderated by NED’s vice president for studies and analysis, Christopher Walker. A recording of both is available below, and the lecture will also be featured in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Democracy.

We studied millennia of Ukrainian history. We debated the legality of seizing frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction. And we drank a cherry liqueur that was once a staple in every household of Old Lviv.

As Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine dragged into its twentieth month this September, we took off with a group of Stanford Law peers from campus to Warsaw, Poland, as part of the school’s inaugural S-Term program (S stands for September). Led by Erik Jensen, director of Stanford’s Rule of Law Program, and Michael Strauss, JD ’01, general counsel at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, our S-Term class, titled Ukraine: The Promise and Perils of Legal Reform and Governance, in Wartime and Reconstruction, was the first ever course at the law school to focus on Ukraine. Inspired by S-Term’s vision of providing unique, immersive learning experiences with faculty leaders and renowned practitioners, Professors Jensen and Strauss gave students an opportunity not only to learn about but also to help address the many challenges facing Ukrainians as they seek a secure, prosperous, and democratic future.

Read the full story in Stanford Lawyer.

The Fisher Family Summer Fellows on Democracy and Development Program at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law is now accepting applications for our summer 2024 program. The deadline to apply is 5:00 pm PST on Sunday, January 14, 2024.

The program brings together an annual cohort of approximately 30 mid-career practitioners from countries in political transition who are working to advance democratic practices and enact economic and legal reform to promote human development. Launched by CDDRL in 2005, the program was previously known as the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program. The new name reflects an endowment gift from the Fisher family — Sakurako (Sako), ‘82, and William (Bill), MBA ‘84 — that secures the future of this important and impactful program.

From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, our program participants are selected from among hundreds of applicants every year for the significant contributions they have already made to their societies and their potential to make an even greater impact with some help from Stanford. We aim to give them the opportunity to join a global network of nearly 500 alumni from 97 countries who have all faced similar sets of challenges in bringing change to their countries.

The Fisher Family Summer Fellows Program provides an intensive 3-week on-campus forum for civil society leaders to exchange experiences and receive academic and policy training to enrich their knowledge and advance their work. Delivered by a leading Stanford faculty team composed of Michael McFaul, Kathryn Stoner, Francis Fukuyama, Larry Diamond, Erik Jensen, and more, the program allows emerging and established global leaders to explore new institutional models and frameworks to enhance their ability to promote good governance, accountable politics, and find new ways to achieve economic development in their home countries.

Prospective fellows from Ukraine are also invited to apply for our Strengthening Ukrainian Democracy and Development (SU-DD) Program, which runs concurrently with the Fisher Family Summer Fellows Program. The SU-DD program provides a unique opportunity for mid-career practitioners working on well-defined projects aimed at strengthening Ukrainian democracy, enhancing human development, and promoting good governance. Applicants to the SU-DD program will use the Fisher Family Summer Fellows Program application portal to apply and indicate their interest there. You will then be directed to a supplemental application for the SU-DD program, which will ask some additional questions specific to the SU-DD program, including requiring a detailed description of your proposed project.

In the ever-changing landscape of modern democracy, CDDRL’s Deliberative Democracy Lab (DDL) stands at the forefront of a movement to promote greater civic engagement and foster meaningful dialogue among citizens. Alice Siu, the Lab’s Associate Director and a senior research scholar at CDDRL, recently took the stage at TEDxStanford to present a talk titled "Deliberative Polling®: Changing the Tides of Democracy."

This year's TEDxStanford event, centered around the theme "Changing Tides," focused on pivotal moments and ideas capable of altering the course of history. Alice was among the nine speakers, comprising a mix of students and faculty, invited to share their insights on transformative topics. Her contribution to the event was an outgrowth of the groundbreaking work she and her team have been doing with Deliberative Polling® and the America in One Room project.

Alice's talk was a call to action for society, presenting a compelling case for the power of deliberative democracy and Deliberative Polling®. As democratic backsliding continues to challenge democratic institutions worldwide, her talk offered a glimmer of hope, demonstrating how the practice of deliberation and engaging with diverse perspectives can alleviate some of our most pressing societal issues.

Deliberative Polling® is a unique approach to engage citizens in constructive dialogue and decision-making. It involves gathering a representative sample of citizens, providing them with access to expert information, and giving them the opportunity to deliberate on key issues. Deliberative Polls have been conducted all over the world, and the evidence Alice shared in her talk illustrates their effectiveness in reducing polarization and fostering consensus.

“What we are doing now at our Lab is trying to bring deliberation to scale,” Alice said in her talk. DDL seeks to bring people together and create opportunities for meaningful engagement through both in-person and virtual means. Their AI-assisted Stanford Online Deliberation Platform, a collaboration with Stanford Professor Ashish Goel and his Crowdsourced Democracy Team, is a pioneering tool in this endeavor. Through technology, they aim to build deliberative societies where people from all walks of life can come together to tackle pressing issues, leading to informed decision-making and collective action.

In a world where division and polarization seem to be the order of the day, Alice's talk offers hope for a new era of citizen engagement where informed, rational discourse supersedes partisan bickering.