So far, the Democrats are performing better than expected in midterms, a surprise to several Stanford professors. Typically, the president’s party loses control of Congress in the midterms, but this election may be different.

Read the full article in The Stanford Daily.

In a talk hosted by the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy on October 31, 2022, Hicham Alaoui, founder and director of the Hicham Alaoui Foundation, discussed his latest book – Pacted Democracy in the Middle East: Tunisia and Egypt in Comparative Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

During the event, co-sponsored by Stanford’s Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies and the Center for African Studies, Alaoui presented a new theory for how democracy can materialize in the Middle East, and the broader Muslim world. He explained that one pathway to democratization lays not in resolving important, but often irreconcilable, debates about the role of religion in politics. Rather, it requires that Islamists and their secular opponents focus on the concerns of pragmatic survival—that is, compromise through pacting, rather than battling through difficult philosophical issues about faith.

You can purchase the book online, and watch a recording of the event below:

From walking down the same hallways as Vice President Kamala Harris to watching a stunning performance of Hamilton at the Kennedy Center, our second day of Honors College was unforgettable.

We kicked off our morning with a visit to the National Security Council (NSC) at one of our nation’s most esteemed buildings: the White House. There, we met Tarun Chhabra ‘02, Senior Director Directorate for Technology & National Security. It was incredible getting to meet and chat with Tarun, who generously shared both his experiences working in government and his expertise on the constantly evolving security challenges we’re facing today. While we’ve learned about national security, economic power, and foreign policy to some degree in our classrooms, it was an immense privilege to hear from someone immersed in these critical decision-making processes on a day-to-day basis. 

Monday was the first day of Honors College, and we had the opportunity to visit two incredible organizations — New America and the National Endowment for Democracy. Both were interesting and educational and provided valuable context for some of our visits later in the week.

At New America, we met with Brigid Schulte from the Better Life Lab, as well as Mark Schmitt, Lee Drutman, and Maresa Strano from the Political Reform Program. We learned about the variety of projects New America works on, as well as their important role in developing the discussion around innovative policy solutions, including expanding paid family and medical leave and the use of fusion voting.

Later in the afternoon, we stopped by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and spoke with Christopher Walker, the Vice President for Studies and Analysis, Miriam Kornblith, the Senior Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Damon Wilson, President of the NED. We were also joined by 2020 CDDRL alumnus Justin Daniels, who now works at the NED as the Assistant Editor for the Journal of Democracy. We heard all about the NED’s important work funding organizations working on democratic development around the world, and the unique scale at which they operate. We discussed the ways in which they interact and support democratic activists as well as how they respond to challenges and setbacks in the accomplishment of their mission, specifically skepticism around their ultimate intentions. They also mentioned a number of their partners and the work that they are doing around the world, which was a fascinating view into the practical work happening around the world to prevent further democratic decline and begin a democratic resurgence.