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.

Better Regulation in Germany - National Regulatory Control Council (NKR)

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About the Seminar: Better regulation or regulatory policy and governance has been on the agenda of Western governments for about 20 years. The OECD regularly publishes overviews and adopts recommendations.

In Germany, the adoption of the Normenkontrollrat Act in 2006 and the subsequent establishment of the National Regulatory Control Council (NKR) as the national oversight body marked the beginning of the Better Regulation Policy. The presentation explains the working methods of the NKR as well as the highlights of its work, especially with regard to efforts to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, to improve the preparation of draft legislation, and to digitalize and modernize the administration in Germany.

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About the Speaker:

Johannes
Dr. Johannes Ludewig, Chairman of NKR 2006-2021; Chairman of German Railways and afterwards Community of European Railways, Brussels 1997-2010; State Secretary Federal Ministry of Economics (1995-1997); Economic and Financial Advisor to the German Federal Chancellor, also responsible for the economic reconstruction of East Germany after Reunification 1990; PhD 1975 (University of Hamburg); MS 1972 (Stanford).

 

 

Online, via Zoom.

Dr. Johannes Ludewig
Seminars

Ravichandra Tadigadapa

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Ravichandra Tadigadapa is a Coterminal MIP student from Mumbai, India. For his undergraduate degree at Stanford, Ravi is majoring in Economics and International Relations, with Honors in Democracy, Development, and The Rule of Law. His interests include economic development, global history, electoral politics, and democracy. In addition to experience working with political parties in India, Ravi has interned with the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, the Center for Policy Research, and the University Network for Human Rights. On campus, he has conducted research with the Cyber Policy Center and has worked on multiple India-related projects with the King Center on Global Development. He’s currently working on his undergraduate thesis, investigating the intellectual history of the Directive Principles of the Indian Constitution.

Master's in International Policy Class of 2023
CDDRL Honors Student, 2021-22

New Continuing Studies Course with Clayborne Carson

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During this multimedia course, Clayborne Carson, the editor of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. and The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the director of the World House Project, will examine the lives of Martin and Coretta Scott King. We will follow Dr. King’s unexpected emergence as an internationally known nonviolence and human rights advocate. We will learn about the successes and challenges he experienced as the preeminent leader of the civil rights movement, and we will discuss the central role that Coretta Scott King played as a partner and activist during Martin’s life and afterward.

This course will highlight the crucial events that influenced Coretta’s and Martin’s lives, such as the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, the 1960 sit-ins, the 1963 Birmingham Campaign and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, as well as the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March. Further, we will look at the Kings’ involvement in the 1966 Chicago Freedom Movement Campaign and their effort to mobilize the 1968 Poor People's Campaign, which brought Martin to Memphis in the Spring of 1968. Finally, we will examine Coretta’s transformation from Martin’s partner into a leader of the movement to shape his legacy. In each session, Mira Foster, the director of education for the World House Project, will provide rich and rarely seen historical material, on-location filming, and other audiovisual documents, to help us understand what inspired and motivated these two remarkable people.

HIS 29 — American Prophet: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Thursdays, January 20 through March 10, 2022, from 6:00-7:50 pm (online)
Learn more about the course and enroll
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Available through Stanford Continuing Studies, "American Prophet: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr." will run online for eight weeks on Thursdays from January 20 through March 10, 2022.

America in One Room Climate and Energy: Discussion Results from a National Deliberative Poll

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America in One Room: Climate and Energy, a Helena project, is the largest controlled experiment with "in-depth deliberation" ever held in the U.S.  It addressed this question: What would the American public really think about our climate and energy challenges if it had the chance to deliberate about them in-depth, with good and balanced information?
 
If the American people—or in this case, a representative sample of them—could consider the pros and cons of our different energy options, which would they support? Which would they cut back on? What possible paths to Net Zero would seem plausible to them? Which proposals would they resist? Can the public arrive at solutions to our climate and energy dilemmas that transcend our great divisions, especially our deep partisan differences? Can they also find common ground across differences in age, race, and region?
 
These and other questions will be discussed on Wednesday, December 1, 2021, 12:30-2:00 pm PST
 

Register Now

Panelists will include:

  • Nicole Ardoin, Director, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER), Associate Professor of Education and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
  • Rep. John Curtis, United States House of Representative, (R-UT)
  • Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
  • Noah Diffenbaugh, Kara J Foundation Professor and Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
  • Chris Field, Perry L. McCarty Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Stanford University
  • James Fishkin, the Janet M. Peck Professor of International Communication and Director, Center for Deliberative Democracy, Stanford University
  • Rep. Ro Khanna, United States House of Representatives (D-CA)
  • Alice Siu, Associate Director, Center for Deliberative Democracy, Stanford University
  • Peter Weber, Co-Chair Emeritus, California Forward


This webinar is hosted by:
Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment
Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Stanford Center for Deliberative Democracy
Stanford Crowdsourced Democracy Team
California Forward
Other sponsors of America in One Room: Climate and Energy are listed here

Online via Zoom

Panel Discussions
CDDRL Special Events

Democracy in Ukraine Thirty Years After the Soviet Collapse

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For decades, the Soviet Union was an authoritarian force in a polarized world. After the political transitions of the 1990s, democracy seemed to finally prevail; however, thirty years later it is in peril across the globe as several traditionally democratic countries have fallen victim to authoritarian backsliding.

The political landscape changed forever on December 1, 1991, when Ukraine held a referendum on its independence from the Soviet Union, garnering overwhelming support from tens of millions of its citizens. This was the pivotal moment that paved the way for the signing of the Belavezha Accords on December 8, 1991, and the final collapse of the USSR.

On the 30th anniversary of this historic event, join us to examine and rethink Ukraine's past and plan for its future as a democratic stronghold in Eastern Europe.

Plus, enjoy a special screening of the docuseries COLLAPSE: How Ukrainians Destroyed the Evil Empire, followed by a conversation with the filmmakers.
 

CONFERENCE AGENDA


10:15 - 11:00 am – Registration open for in-person attendees

11:00 - 11:10 am – Opening Remarks:

  • Kathryn Stoner, Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University
  • Oleksiy Honcharuk, Former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Bernard and Susan Liautaud Visiting Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

11:10 am - 12:45 pm – Panel 1: The Soviet Collapse and the Collapse of Democratic Promise (recording)

  • Moderator: Vitali Shkliarov, Political analyst, Belarusian activist, and film director
  • Marta Dyczok, Associate Professor (History and Political Science), Western University
  • Rose Gottemoeller, Steven C. Házy Lecturer at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University, and Former Deputy Secretary General of NATO
  • Norman Naimark, Robert & Florence McDonnell Professor of E. European Studies, and Senior Fellow, by courtesy, at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University
  • Serhiy Plokhiy, Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

12:45 - 2:00 pm – Lunch Break (boxed lunches will be served)

2:00 - 3:30 pm – Panel 2: How Did Ukraine Transition into a Democracy? (recording)

  • Moderator: Myroslava Gongadze, Chief, Ukrainian Service, Voice of America
  • Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Director of the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy, Stanford University
  • Oleksiy Honcharuk, Former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Bernard and Susan Liautaud Visiting Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
  • Steven Pifer, Former US Ambassador to Ukraine, William J. Perry Research Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University
  • Kathryn Stoner, Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University

3:30 - 4:00 pm – Break

4:00 - 6:00 pm – Screening of the docuseries COLLAPSE: How Ukrainians Destroyed the Evil Empire​​

COLLAPSE is a seven-episode docuseries and political thriller that explores the decay of the Soviet Union in its last months. For the first time on screen, the Ukrainian perspective was brought to the global narrative, as well as recently unclassified details from the CIA and KGB archives. The series was produced by Suspilne, a Ukrainian public broadcaster.

6:00 - 7:00 pm – Q&A with Filmmakers (recording)

  • Moderator: Yaroslav Lodygin, Film director, scriptwriter, and Board Member of Ukrainian Public Broadcasting Company, producer of "COLLAPSE"
  • Marta Dyczok, Associate Professor (History and Political Science), Western University
  • Serhiy Plokhiy, Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University
  • Oleksandr Zinchenko, "COLLAPSE" screenwriter and historian
     

Hybrid event: Online via Zoom, and in-person in Bechtel Conference Center

Conferences
CDDRL Special Events

The Russia Challenge: Limited or Resurrected?

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*For fall quarter 2021, CISAC will be hosting hybrid events. Many events will offer limited-capacity in-person attendance for Stanford faculty, staff, fellows, visiting scholars, and students in accordance with Stanford’s health and safety guidelines, and be open to the public online via Zoom. All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

 

REGISTRATION

Zoom

(Open to all)

 

Seminar Recording

About the Event: As relations between the West and Russia plunge to a post-Cold War nadir, how strong a competitor will the Kremlin prove? Will constraints on Putin's autocracy hinder his ability to have Russia play a great power role, or has Russia alrealdy successfully resurrected itself and is now able to exercise significant influence on the global stage? On November 10, Timothy Frye (author of Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin's Russia) and Kathryn Stoner (author of Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order) will discuss the nature and depth of the Russian challenge to the West.

 

About the Speakers: 

Timothy Frye is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy at Columbia University. Professor Frye received a B.A. in Russian language and literature from Middlebury College, an M.A. from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia. His research and teaching interests are in comparative politics and political economy with a focus on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. His most recent book is Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia (Princeton University Press, 2021). He co-directs the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and edits Post-Soviet Affairs.

Kathryn Stoner is the Deputy Director at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, and at the Center on International Security and Cooperation at FSI. She teaches in the Department of Political Science at Stanford, and in the Program on International Relations, as well as in the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy Program. Prior to coming to Stanford in 2004, she was on the faculty at Princeton University for nine years, jointly appointed to the Department of Politics and the Princeton School for International and Public Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School). At Princeton she received the Ralph O. Glendinning Preceptorship awarded to outstanding junior faculty. She also served as a Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at McGill University. She has held fellowships at Harvard University as well as the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. In addition to many articles and book chapters on contemporary Russia, she is the author or co-editor of six books: "Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective," written and edited with Michael A. McFaul (Johns Hopkins 2013); "Autocracy and Democracy in the Post-Communist World," co-edited with Valerie Bunce and Michael A. McFaul (Cambridge, 2010); "Resisting the State: Reform and Retrenchment in Post-Soviet Russia" (Cambridge, 2006); "After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transitions" (Cambridge, 2004), coedited with Michael McFaul; and "Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional" Governance (Princeton, 1997). Her most recent book is Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order" (Oxford University Press, 2021). She received a BA (1988) and MA (1989) in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in Government from Harvard University (1995). In 2016 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Iliad State University, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.

Virtual Only. This event will not be held in person.

Timothy Frye

Kathryn Stoner

FSI
Stanford University
Encina Hall C140
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 736-1820 (650) 724-2996
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Satre Family Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
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Kathryn Stoner is the Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and the Satre Family Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). From 2017 to 2021, she served as FSI's Deputy Director. She is Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) at Stanford and teaches in the Department of Political Science, the Program on International Relations, and the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy Program. She is also a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at the Hoover Institution.

Prior to coming to Stanford in 2004, she was on the faculty at Princeton University for nine years, jointly appointed to the Department of Politics and the Princeton School for International and Public Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School). At Princeton, she received the Ralph O. Glendinning Preceptorship, awarded to outstanding junior faculty. She also served as a Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at McGill University. She has held fellowships at Harvard University as well as the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. 

In addition to many articles and book chapters on contemporary Russia, she is the author or co-editor of six books: Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective, written and edited with Michael A. McFaul (Johns Hopkins 2013);  Autocracy and Democracy in the Post-Communist World, co-edited with Valerie Bunce and Michael A. McFaul (Cambridge, 2010);  Resisting the State: Reform and Retrenchment in Post-Soviet Russia (Cambridge, 2006); After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transitions (Cambridge, 2004), coedited with Michael McFaul; and Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional Governance (Princeton, 1997); and Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2021).

She received a BA (1988) and MA (1989) in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in Government from Harvard University (1995). In 2016, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Ilia State University in Tbilisi, the Republic of Georgia.

Download full-resolution headshot; photo credit: Rod Searcey.

Mosbacher Director, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Professor of Political Science (by courtesy), Stanford University
Senior Fellow (by courtesy), Hoover Institution
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Seminars

Authoritarian media and diversionary threats: lessons from 30 years of Syrian state discourse

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Scholars have long argued that leaders manipulate foreign policy, sometimes even initiating wars in order to enhance their domestic political position. But diversionary wars are relatively rare given the high costs of conflict. In this project, we examine data from major Syrian daily newspapers over a 30-year period (1987–2018) to explore how autocratic regimes use diversionary rhetoric. We find that before the 2011 Arab Uprisings, Syria's state-controlled media concentrated on Israel as a security and political threat. Emphasis on Israel as a diversionary threat decreased during peace negotiations between Syria and Israel, probably in a bid to prepare the Syrian public for normalization of bilateral relations. After 2011, scrutiny of Israel—and other long-standing topics of state discourse—was displaced by discussion of foreign plots and conspiracies against the Syrian state. Our analysis illustrates how authoritarian regimes make use of diversionary strategies as well as how political shocks generate discontinuities in authoritarian rhetoric.

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Issue 4

Thinking about Democracy and Revolution: Egypt’s 2011 Uprising

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Bread and Freedom book cover
Egypt’s 2011 uprising is widely held to be a case of either failed democratic transition or inauthentic revolution. Scholars of democratic transitions blame Egypt’s bickering civilian politicians for failing to do the hard work of negotiated compromise to build an inclusive democracy. Scholars of revolution doubt that Egypt’s uprising counts as a revolution, since military generals did not cede the reins after Hosni Mubarak’s fall, and ultimately reconquered the state with their July 2013 coup. But what if instead of viewing Egypt as a uniform failure, we mine it for ideas on how to refresh our concepts of democracy and revolution? In this talk, based on her new book Bread and Freedom, Egypt’s Revolutionary Situation, Mona El-Ghobashy presents an interpretation of Egypt’s 2011 uprising that brings out some lost connections between democracy and revolution.
 

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SPEAKER BIO

Mona El-Ghobashy
Mona El-Ghobashy is a scholar of the sociology and history of politics in Egypt, and the broader Middle East and North Africa. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Liberal Studies at New York University. Her research focuses on the dynamics of political contestation in Egypt before and after the 2011 uprising. Her first book, Bread and Freedom: Egypt’s Revolutionary Situation, was published by Stanford University Press in July 2021.

This event is co-sponsored by the "Ten Years on Project" and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University.

Online, via Zoom: REGISTER

Seminars
Arab Reform and Democracy Speaker Series

Fisher Family CDDRL Honors Program Information Session AY 22-23

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The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) will be accepting applications from eligible juniors on who are interested in writing their senior thesis on a subject touching upon democracy, economic development, and rule of law (DDRL) from any university department.  The application period opens on January 10, 2022 and runs through February 11, 2022.   For more information on the Fisher Family CDDRL Honors Program, please click here.

Join us online via Zoom on Friday, January 21st at 12:00pm (PST) to learn more! 

REGISTER NOW

CDDRL faculty and current honors students will be present to discuss the program and answer any questions.

 

Online via zoom. REGISTER HERE.

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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Didi Kuo

Encina Hall, C150
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305

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Center Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
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Didi Kuo is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University. She is a scholar of comparative politics with a focus on democratization, corruption and clientelism, political parties and institutions, and political reform. She is the author of The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave and Why They Don’t (Oxford University Press) and Clientelism, Capitalism, and Democracy: the rise of programmatic politics in the United States and Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

She has been at Stanford since 2013 as the manager of the Program on American Democracy in Comparative Perspective and is co-director of the Fisher Family Honors Program at CDDRL. She was an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow at New America and is a non-resident fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She received a PhD in political science from Harvard University, an MSc in Economic and Social History from Oxford University, where she studied as a Marshall Scholar, and a BA from Emory University.

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