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.

Laura Jakli

Encina Hall, C147 616 Jane Stanford Way Stanford, CA 94305-6055
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CDDRL Predoctoral Fellow, 2018-20
Fellow, Program on Democracy and the Internet, 2018-20
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​I am a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Starting in 2023, I will be an Assistant Professor at Harvard Business School's Business, Government and the International Economy (BGIE) unit.

My research examines political extremism, destigmatization, and radicalization, focusing on the role of popularity cues in online media. My related research examines a broad range of threats to democratic governance, including authoritarian encroachment, ethnic prejudice in public goods allocation, and misinformation. 

​My dissertation won APSA's Ernst B. Haas Award for the best dissertation on European Politics. I am currently working on my book project, Engineering Extremism, with generous funding from the William F. Milton Fund at Harvard.

My published work has appeared in the American Political Science Review,  Governance,  International Studies Quarterly, Public Administration Review, and the Virginia Journal of International Law, along with an edited volume in Democratization (Oxford University Press). My research has been featured in KQED/NPR, The Washington Post, and VICE News.
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I received my Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley in 2020. I was a Predoctoral Research Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University and the Stanford Program on Democracy and the Internet. I hold a B.A. (Magna Cum Laude; Phi Beta Kappa) from Cornell University and an M.A. (with Distinction) from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Meet the next generation of Ukraine’s leaders

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Selected from among 668 applicants, the 2018-19 Ukrainian Emerging Leaders at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) stood out for their outstanding civic records, leadership potential and contributions to Ukraine’s political and social development.

Nataliya Mykolska, Ivan Prymachenko, and Oleksandra Ustinova will arrive to Stanford this September to begin the 10-month fellowship program. Taking courses with leading faculty and working on fellowship projects, these emerging leaders will step back from the demands of their work and immerse themselves in an academic experience that will reset their professional trajectories.

Since the 2013-14 Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine has fought to define itself as a democracy. Not only has it faced external challenges in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, but also internal ones as it grapples with institution-building and reforms. These three incoming fellows are all pioneering new approaches to dismantle the Soviet past and re-shape the future of their country. From export promotion to education reform to anti-corruption work, their projects at Stanford will contribute to Ukraine’s democratic transition.

As the first year of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program draws to a close, the inaugural cohort of fellows will return to Ukraine to apply what they learned and work on reforms that will shape their country. They will join a community of mid-career practitioners in Ukraine who have graduated from CDDRL’s other core leadership programs - the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program and the Leadership Academy for Development.

The Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program would not be possible without the support of a generous set of donors who have made this program possible, including; Western NIS Enterprise Fund; Svyatoslav Vakarchuk; Tomas Fiala; Rustem Umerov; Oleksandr Kosovan; and Viktor and Iryna Ivanchyk.

 

 

TRANSFORMING UKRAINE INTO AN EXPORTING NATION

 

 

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Hometown: Kyiv and Lviv, Ukraine

Organizational affiliation: Trade Representative of Ukraine - Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade

 

Professional Background:

- In the Ukrainian government, I am responsible for developing and implementing consistent, predictable and efficient trade policy. I focus on export strategy and promotion, building an effective system of state support for Ukrainian exports, free trade agreements, protecting Ukrainian trade interests in the World Trade Organization, dialogue with Ukrainian exporters, and removing trade barriers. Prior to joining the government, I worked for almost 15 years as a legal counsel in top Ukrainian law firms, with a concentration on all aspects of international trade.

 

Why do you do the work you do?

- I do believe in international trade and that it brings growth to the world economy and prosperity to the world. I also believe that exports are not only driving Ukraine’s economy but are of paramount importance for further development and growth of Ukraine. Exports change Ukraine and Ukrainian businesses. Moreover, improving Ukraine’s export strategy will change people’s mindset -it will not only create a new generation of businesses but a new generation of Ukrainians.

 

What do you hope to achieve at Stanford through the fellowship and your project?

- For me, this program is an opportunity to enhance my academic foundation and skills to reload and upgrade in order to develop a strategic vision and apply relevant implementation instruments, and thus to achieve a higher level of professional and personal development. This is a tremendous opportunity to work on an ambitious vision of Ukraine as an exporting nation. The project will create a program to help Ukrainians understand why exporting is important not only for the further development and growth of Ukraine, but also how it impacts them directly. I plan to do this through education, culture, social movements and changing mindsets. This campaign should promote efforts to increase exports, and not only create a new generation of business, but a new Ukrainian perspective on exports.

 

Favorite quote or fun fact about yourself? 

“What was a progress yesterday, will be the ichthyosaurs tomorrow.” Lina Kostenko, Ukrainian poet and writer.

 

 

QUALITY AND ACCESSIBLE EDUCATION AS THE KEY TO THE FUTURE

 

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Hometown: Donetsk, Ukraine

Organizational affiliation: Prometheus

 

Professional Background:

- I am an educational technology innovator and co-founder of the largest Ukrainian massive open online courses platform Prometheus, which has 600,000 users. Prometheus hosts 75 massive online courses from top-rated Ukrainian universities, governmental bodies, international organizations such as United Nations Development Program, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and leading companies such as Microsoft Ukraine and Ernst and Young Ukraine. Among my organization’s key activities is the integration of our courses as a part of the curricula in Ukraine’s educational facilities in a blended learning format: twenty-two Ukrainian universities are already participating in this program.

 

Why do you do the work you do?

- In high school, I loved history but had to travel for hours to study with one of the few renowned historians in my region. With her guidance, I won the All-Ukrainian competition in history, an accomplishment that got me admitted to the best Ukrainian university. Quality education was the key to my future. Now, with the use of new technologies, I want to bring free access to the best education to every student in Ukraine.

 

What do you hope to achieve at Stanford through the fellowship and your project?

- At Stanford, I plan to design a technology-driven Ukrainian education reform roadmap, covering the teaching process itself, retraining of teachers and integrating the principles of financing. I want to research cutting-edge educational practices and to learn how to scale them for millions of students in Ukraine and eventually worldwide. My intended impact is to create equal educational opportunities that will kick-start economic development and promote citizens’ participation in social and political life.

 

Favorite quote or fun fact about yourself? 

- To launch the first massive open online course in Ukraine as a student-historian in 2013, I studied programming with the help of massive open online courses from American universities and created a website for the project on my own.

 

 

CORRUPTION IS A BATTLE I CAN FIGHT

 

 

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Hometown: Kyiv, Ukraine

Organizational affiliation: Anti-Corruption Action Center (ANTAC)

 

Professional Background:

- I am a board member of the Anti-corruption Action Center (ANTAC) where I direct communications strategy and advocacy campaigns. I have been working in this field for over ten years. Previously I ran the press-center for the National Anti-Tobacco movement that resulted in the ban of tobacco advertisements and smoking in public places, as well as the increase of taxes on tobacco products.

Since the 2013-14 revolution on Maidan, one of Ukraine’s major struggles in building its democracy has been the one against corruption. My team has advocated for over 20 laws establishing new anti-corruption bodies, such as the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor and Anti-Corruption Court, as well as for public access to land and property registers, criminal liability for illicit enrichment and other anti-corruption tools. I also manage the Corruption in Healthcare Project which focuses on reforming the medical procurement process.

 

Why do you do the work you do?

- I personally believe that if everyone gives up 10 percent of their time for something good we could change the world. A lot changed with the Revolution of Dignity when my countrymen died for a better future for Ukraine. After 2014, I gave up a well-paid job in an American IT company and began working full-time to fight corruption. Corruption is Ukraine’s second front, other than the war with Russia. A lot of young men, including friends of mine, went to fight in the war in Eastern Ukraine and never returned. Corruption is the battle I can fight: That’s why I have to do what I can to change the country.

 

What do you hope to achieve at Stanford through the fellowship and your project?

- I want to study the best anti-corruption practices, cultural behavior changes and new trends in politics to return with a campaign to implement. The heart of it will be to change Ukrainians’ attitudes toward corruption. Currently many Ukrainians see corrupt officials as successful businessmen rather than thieves. With the rise of populism, the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019 may see these officials gaining power. This attitude of accepting corruption needs to change and I hope to learn the best practices for fighting this mindset. Once successfully implemented in Ukraine, the communication campaign I design at Stanford could be replicated in other Post-Soviet countries. I am convinced that Ukraine is a laboratory for new anti-corruption solutions and good governance tools.
 

Favorite quote or fun fact about yourself?

 - Dream Big!

 
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From left to right: Nataliya Mykolska, Ivan Prymachenko, and Oleksandra Ustinova | Oleksandr Avramchuk
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Joanne Camantigue

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

(650) 736-1436
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Joanne Camantigue is the Finance and Research Manager at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. Joanne first started her career at Stanford in Global Studies as Finance Associate in 2012 and became the Program Administrator for the Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines. She has lived in the Bay Area for many years and loves the diversity in this community. She enjoys learning about different cultures, and ethnic cuisine, one plate at a time.

Finance Manager, CDDRL
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Kristin Chandler

Encina Hall, C141
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

650.497.1271
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Kristin Chandler joined CDDRL in April 2018 and serves as the Senior Associate Director for Operations and Finance.  Before coming to Stanford, Kristin worked at the Ronald McDonald House Stanford as the Operations Manager leading the day-to-day operations and building a culture of service excellence with empathy.   Kristin holds a bachelor's degree in Social Work from The University of New Hampshire. An advocate for social justice, Kristin spent 15 years working for grassroots non-profit organizations where she specialized in operations and program management.  CDDRL’s mission resonates with her background and passion for global issues.

Senior Associate Director for Operations and Finance, CDDRL
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Why Trump’s plans for regime change in Iran will have the opposite effect

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"Containing Iran’s belligerent actions abroad should be a high priority for the Trump administration, as well as engaging in arms control to limit Iran’s ballistic missile program and supporting ideas of democracy and human rights," writes Michael McFaul and Abbas Milani in The Washington Post. Read the full article here.

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The Draper Hills Summer Fellows Class of 2018

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Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law is proud to announce our 2018 Draper Hills Summer Fellows who were selected from among hundreds of applicants for their path-breaking work to defend democracy. These 27 leaders drawn from 23 countries around the world are pioneering new approaches and models to advance social and political change in some of the most challenging global contexts. Learn more here. 

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CDDRL Weekly Research Seminar featuring Honor Student Awardees

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TITLE:  The China Wide Web:  The information Dilemma and the Domestsication of  Cyberspace

 

Qitong Tom Cao
Major:  Political Science; Computer Science (minor); MS&E (Computational Social Science) (coterm)

 

Abstract:


In order to preempt severe public discontent, an authoritarian government needs its citizens to convey their true political attitudes. But it does not want their attitudes to be communicated among themselves, which may trigger protests or even subversion in case widespread dissatisfaction exists and becomes citizens common knowledge. This information dilemma thus poses a fundamental threat to the stability and governance of all authoritarian regimes. This thesis, however, argues that the Chinese government is resolving the information dilemma through an innovative approach  by domesticating its internet. On this domestic cyberspace, social media companies delete unfavorable content and report user data to the regime, which can be analyzed to reveal citizens true political attitudes. As such, the government manages both to restrict communication of discontent and to gain knowledge of the political inclination of the public. I will demonstrate formally that this domestic cyberspace presents an optimal solution for authoritarian regimes, and that the Chinese government could attract the bulk of their internet users to the domestic cyberspace despite its inability to fully block access to foreign websites. Finally, I will show empirically that domestic social media also helps increase propaganda efficacy, which reduces perceived level of discontent and further consolidates regime stability. Together, this strategy may potentially afford the regime an information advantage enormous enough to secure its stability without fear of overthrow.

 

TITLE:  Whose California?  Power, Property Rights, and the Legacy of the 1851 California Land Act

 

Marin Callaway
Major: International Relations; Spanish (minor)
 

Abstract:

 

In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War and ceded over half of Mexico's territory to the United States. But, the valuable new lands gained by the United States were not empty. With the changing border, the country gained a sizable Mexican and Native American population. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guaranteed the protection of property rights and civil rights of Mexican nationals living on the newly acquired lands. But, in California, the much-delayed California Land Act of 1851 put the burden of proof on Mexican landowners to receive a formal U.S. patent to their land. Landowners, who had received private land grants or ranchos from the Mexican government, underwent lengthy litigation. This thesis evaluates the Land Act's impact on Mexican land ownership, measures the extent to which original grantees were able to retain their lands, and describes the contentious evolution of land and power in California in the nineteenth century. In an effort to add empirical evidence to the historical literature, I find that 58% of patented ranchos remained in the name of the original grantees by the patent date with greater retention in Southern California than Northern California. However, the finding that less than 20% of ranchos in Los Angeles County were owned even in part by original grantees by 1888 reveals that land loss became even more pronounced after patents were issued. The findings of this thesis both support and contradict traditional claims about the fate of Mexican land grant ownership in California throughout the nineteenth century. By determining what the rates of land grant retention were for original grantees throughout California and in individual counties, it is possible to better understand the legacy of the Land Act and how it interacted simultaneously with other social, economic, and political phenomena to ultimately result in significant loss of Mexican land ownership in the state. This thesis treats nineteenth century California as a case study of minority rights in annexed land. It ultimately argues that Mexicans and Mexican-Americans suffered most under a lack of rule of law and uncertainly surrounding property rights and citizenship. The California Land Act of 1851 upheld property rights but was too little too late for a group that was by 1851 the minority in the state.
 

 

Qitong Tom Cao
Marin Callaway
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