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.

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The demise of communism in the Soviet Union could not have occurred without the activism of dissident, anticommunist leaders who created a climate that gave ordinary Russians the courage to stand up to and defeat communist control. But with communism ousted, what new form of government and what new leaders will emerge in Russia, a society that has never known democracy? Michael McFaul, a Western scholar studying at Moscow State University, and Sergei Markov, an assistant professor at Moscow State University, interviewed anticommunist parties in the months preceding and immediately following the August 1991 attempted coup d'etat. To examine the range of the political spectrum in Russia, they also talked to procommunist leaders who emerged to oppose Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, nationalist and anti-Semitic leaders of movements such as Pamyat', labor unions, Christian movements, and organizations opposed to the division of the Soviet Union.

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Books
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Journal Publisher
Hoover Institution Press
Authors
Michael A. McFaul
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During the most recent Russian-American summit in Vancouver, Canada in April 1993, President Clinton announced a major new initiative to assist Russia's transition to a market economy. In discussing how to aid the process of Russia's economic reform in ways of mutual benefit to both the United States and Russia, both President Yeltsin and President Clinton underscored the importance of promoting the conversion and privatization of state enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.

While most agree that conversion and privatization of these enterprises are laudable goals, few have discussed concrete methods of achieving these ends at the level of individual enterprises. By focusing on the actual experiences of one Russian enterprise that has both converted to almost 100% civilian production and, at the same time, become a private company, this report seeks to expand the discussion of the means and models for achieving conversion and privatization of the Russian military industrial complex.

This report covers work on conversion and privatization in the former Soviet Union that has been conducted over the past two years by the Center for International Security and Arms Control (CISAC) at Stanford University. In it, we explore the process of conversion and privatization through employee ownership. The report contains one chapter each on the major issues surrounding conversion and privatization, followed by a detailed explanation of the employee ownership method of privatization. The report concludes with the description and analysis of a case study of privatization through employee ownership: the Saratov Aviation Plant.

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Working Papers
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CISAC
Authors
Michael A. McFaul
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Far fetched? Of course. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? No. The chances of

fascist dictators seizing power in Russia are still slight. In a Las Vegas

casino, the odds would still firmly be with Boris Yeltsin.1 Yet, the specter

of Russian dictatorship is real and growing at a frightening pace.

Meanwhile, American engagement, and Western involvement more

generally, has come under sharp criticism by both Russian nationalists and

even Russian liberals who vested their political careers on their ability to

deliver Western assistance. Despite nationalist resurgence in Russia and

Western neglect, the reform process will still probably survive albeit

amended to deal with these new circumstances. If reforms turn sour,

however, the West will have missed the most important opportunity for

promoting democracy and insuring world peace of this century. The

Clinton campaign correctly made the analogy between the Bush

administration winning the Cold War and the rooster calling the sun to

rise. However, if the sun sets during the Clinton administration, they will

still be blamed for loosing the peace.

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Journal Articles
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Journal Publisher
Demokratizatsiya
Authors
Michael A. McFaul
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Much has been written already about the changed international system of the 1990s, projecting the configuration of a restructured Europe, the future role of the former Soviet republics and the United States, and the emergence of a multipolar world with or without a dominant hegemon. In the search for new structures and explanations, however, it is too often assumed in error that these apply to what we label the "Third World" in the same way that they do to the "North" or the "West."

This book explores the phenomenon of global transformation in the context of the Third World, looking specifically at the preference for more democratic political systems, the emergence of a new international economic order, and the changing forms of conflict, its mitigation, and its resolution. The authors provide major theoretical analyses of these three trends, as well as in-depth case studies that explore specific developments.

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Books
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Lynne Rienner Publishers in "Global Transformation and the Third World", Robert Slater, Steven Dorr, and Barry Schutz, eds.
Authors
Larry Diamond
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No living political scientist or sociologist is more frequently cited by other scholars than Seymour Martin Lipset. He is one of the most prolific social scientists of this century--the author (or co-author) of 21 books and the editor (or co-editor) of 25 more. Lipset's influential Political Man has been published in 16 countries, including Israel, Japan, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia. Now, in this comprehensive and well-integrated selection of essays, an all-star cast pays tribute to Lipset's scholarship by exploring his core theme: the conditions, problems, dynamics, values, and institutions of democracy, both in the United States and comparatively throughout the world. Reexamining Democracy--like Lipset's own wide-ranging intellectual work--is devoted to rethinking the character and development of democracy in America and beyond. With the ongoing resurgence of democracy in the world and the faltering performances of many established democracies acting as an ironic backdrop, this collection of diverse thought offers fascinating perspectives on an ever potent and compelling social force.

"Economic Development and Democracy Reconsidered" also reprinted in American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 35 (March/June 1992), pp. 450-499, and in Spanish in Estudios Publicos, no. 49, 1993)

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Books
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Journal Publisher
Sage
Authors
Larry Diamond
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The war in El Salvador is over. On January 16, 1992, in Mexico Citys ornate Chapultepec Castle the government of President Alfredo Cristiani and the rebel Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) formally signed a comprehensive peace treaty, putting an end to 12 years of conflict.

As 1992 began, the scene of Americas most prolonged military involvement since Vietnam presented images unimaginable just a few months before. In Mexico City, after unexpectedly signing the peace agreement in person, President Cristiani strode across the podium to shake hands with all five FMLN commanders as participants on both sides cried openly. In El Salvador a sea of FMLN flags filled San Salvadors Civic Plaza in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral, where the army once massacred political dissidents; the cathedral itself was draped with an enormous banner of the assassinated Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero. A ceremony held to observe the commencement of the formal ceasefire was especially poignant: army officers and rebel commanders stood together at attention to sing the Salvadoran anthem on a dais decorated with the flags of El Salvador, the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and the FMLN. The rival commandants then accompanied President Cristiani to light an eternal flame in commemoration of the more than 75,000 Salvadorans who died in the tiny countrys war.

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Journal Articles
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Journal Publisher
Foreign Affairs
Authors
Terry L. Karl
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In its first edition, The Global Resurgence of Democracy brought together essays on democratization written from 1989 to 1991 by internationally prominent scholars, intellectuals, and political leaders. This thoroughly revised and updated second edition extends that work with a wealth of fresh material on a wide range of conceptual, historical, institutional, and policy issues.

"A useful compilation popularizing the work of an influential journal . . . The Journal of Democracy is an effective tribune for mainstream U.S. thinking on these issues." - Political Studies

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Publication Type
Books
Publication Date
Journal Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press, in "The Global Resurgence of Democracy"
Authors
Terry L. Karl
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