In a workshop hosted jointly by the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law and the Southeast Asia Program of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center on March 9, 2023, scholars discussed the setbacks and prospects for democracy in Southeast Asia. The workshop included Stanford affiliates, visiting scholars at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and political scientists from several universities and research institutions in Japan, whose visit to Stanford was funded by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science.

Democracies in Southeast Asia face challenges found among other democracies around the globe, including pervasive corruption, political polarization, and the spread of disinformation on social media.

These issues were prominent in the workshop presentations and discussions. At one point, APARC visiting scholar Gita Wirwajan used the opportunity to urge Stanford, being in Silicon Valley, to speak louder against the information-degrading effects of social media.

Scholars also discussed the other distinctive and challenging conditions in which democracy, development, and the rule of law must take root in Southeast Asia, including monarchial traditions, religious diversity, and proximity to China. Such topics ranged widely, from Islamic Law in the Indonesian province of Aceh through China-funded infrastructure in Myanmar to the Mindanao conflict in the Philippines.

Waseda University Associate Professor and CDDRL Visiting Scholar Marisa Kellam co-chaired the workshop’s panels and roundtables with APARC’s Southeast Asia Program Director and CDDRL Affiliated Faculty Donald Emmerson. On the panels, Kana Inata (Tokyo Metropolitan University) and Ruosui Zhang (Waseda University) presented papers for discussion by Michael Bennon and Francis Fukuyama (both Stanford). The roundtables featured papers or remarks by Lisandro Claudio (UC Berkeley), Reza Idria (Ar-Raniry State Islamic University), Yuko Kasuya (Keio University), Aya Watanabe (Institute of Developing Economies), and Gita Wirwajan (Ancora Group). Several Stanford students in the Masters of International Policy program attended the workshop and took part in the discussion, and we were pleased to welcome representatives from the Consulate General of both Indonesia and the Philippines as well.

Perspectives from Indonesia and the Philippines

The morning roundtable offered the two Indonesian scholars’ perspectives on democracy, development, and the rule of law in Indonesia. Idria, while acknowledging that Aceh in democratic Indonesia is almost a state inside a state, situated the province within larger socioeconomic and religious contexts. Wirjawan argued that Indonesia’s democracy needs to become meritocratic, which he linked to the need for improved education.

The afternoon roundtable on the Philippines focused on Bongbong Marcos’s victory in the 2022 Philippine presidential election. According to Claudio, Bongbong’s opponent had run on a good governance platform that failed to persuade voters accustomed to the dynastic personalism of Philippine politics. Kasuya augmented Claudio’s account with reference to the disinformation circulating through social media and the disintegration of political parties and other accountability institutions during Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency. Watanabe’s scope included previous Philippine presidents, specifically their efforts to obtain legislative approval of the settlements negotiated to end the Mindanao insurgency.

Understanding Global Trends

In addition to the roundtable discussions on Indonesia and the Philippines, panel presentations at the workshop used Southeast Asian cases to understand global trends. Zhang’s research on the changing fate of the China-invested Myitsone dam project in Myanmar demonstrated that a developing country undergoing semi-democratic political change would not necessarily kowtow to Beijing. Inata compared the power of monarchs and described how monarchies have contributed to autocratization in Southeast Asia.

For Prof. Emmerson, the workshop’s value reflected the crucial and generous role played by Prof. Kellam in organizing the event; the scope and quality of its findings and interpretations; its coverage of an important region that lacks the attention Northeast Asia receives; and the all too rare collaboration that the workshop achieved between differently specialized components of Stanford University.

The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University is proud to join Freedom House and a coalition of nearly 500 experts, organizations, dignitaries, and heads of state calling on the international community to strengthen its support for Iranian pro-democracy protesters.

A joint statement on the Freedom House website reads as follows:

Iranians have taken to the streets in rebellion.  The vanguard are young women, but they have been joined by men and people of all ages.  With breathtaking courage and unarmed, they have kept coming, even as the regime has shot, hanged, tortured, blinded, raped, beaten, and arrested many thousands. 

The spark was mandatory hijab, but the target of the uprising is the whole theocratic system.  Their slogan is Woman, Life, Freedom.  The goal they chant is “Azadi, Azadi, A-za-di,” meaning “Freedom, Freedom, Freedom.” 

Their victory would mean deliverance from a regime that denies free elections, free speech, due process of law, and personal autonomy in matters as simple as the choice of clothing. 

Victory would mean even more than that.  The end of the Islamic Republic’s system of misogyny would constitute a global landmark in the long march toward a world in which women are treated equally. 

The triumph of freedom in Iran could renew the global tide of democratization that was so strong in the latter twentieth century but has ebbed in the face of authoritarian counterattack. 

The Azadi movement addresses no demands to the regime, which it regards as fundamentally illegitimate and beyond reform.  The protestors chant “down with” it.  They want theocracy and dictatorship replaced by freedom and democracy.  They proclaim a “revolution.” 

They deserve unstinting support from freedom-loving people around the world: 

• Governments, civic associations, and individuals should speak loudly and often in support of the protestors and in condemnation of the regime’s repressive actions.  Legislators and others should “adopt” individual arrestees, especially those facing execution, and spotlight their plight. 
• Governments should take diplomatic, economic, and symbolic measures to punish the regime and bolster the protestors. All officials involved in the repressions, from Supreme Leader Khamenei down to local Basij commanders, should be sanctioned. The Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) should be added to terrorism lists. 
• High level officials of democratic governments should receive leaders of the opposition, in publicly-announced meetings. 
• Accurate, reliable, fact-based reporting via international radio, television, and social media reaching Iran should be enhanced, as should assistance to private Iranian exile broadcasting. 
• Technical assistance, including equipment, should be given to help the demonstrators counteract censorship and surveillance and to communicate despite the regime’s disruption of Internet service and blocking of websites. 
•  Labor unions, governments, and others in the international community should express solidarity with Iranian workers, should share the experiences of other labor struggles for worker rights and democracy, and should also seek ways to provide practical assistance, such as VPNs, other means of communication, and contributions to strike funds if safe and effective channels can be found.

We pledge to do all in our power to support the Iranian struggle for Azadi and call upon all people of good will everywhere to join us.

Additional signatories as of publishing this article include CDDRL faculty (Kathryn Stoner, Abbas Milani, Michael McFaul, Francis Fukuyama, and Larry Diamond), visitors (Sheri Berman), and practitioner program alumni (Laura Alonso, Nino Evgenidze, Nino Zambakhidze, Agon Maliqi, Andrea Ngombet, Oleksandra Medviichuk, and Saeid Golkar), among the hundreds of others.

We encourage you to read the full statement and sign the petition for yourself.

The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) has a special relationship with Ukraine. For more than a decade, we have hosted a series of leadership programs that count many Ukrainians among their alumni. We made these investments in citizens of Ukraine out of a belief that the country constitutes the front line in the global struggle for democracy.

Today, we are pleased to announce the application launch for CDDRL’s Strengthening Ukrainian Democracy and Development Program (SU-DD), formerly the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program — a 10-week training program for Ukrainian practitioners and policymakers. SU-DD provides a unique opportunity for up to 10 mid-career practitioners working on well-defined projects aimed at strengthening Ukrainian democracy, enhancing human development, and promoting good governance.

"Right now there is an urgent need to assist in rebuilding and strengthening Ukrainian political and economic institutions," explained Kathryn Stoner, Mosbacher Director of CDDRL. "CDDRL has a long history across our many programs in promoting Ukrainian democracy and development. We are excited to launch this new initiative and continue to do what we can to help Ukraine at this pivotal moment."

The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) is pleased to announce that effective July 1, 2022, the Center for Deliberative Democracy (CDD) has transitioned from the Department of Communication to CDDRL as the newly named Deliberative Democracy Lab (DDL).

For the last two decades, CDD has focused its work on the theory and practice of deliberative democracy, especially as implemented via Deliberative Polling® — a concept originated in 1988 by Professor James Fishkin, the Janet M. Peck Chair of International Communication. Sometimes called “the poll with a human face,” Deliberative Polling shows what the public would think about an issue both before and after it has considered an issue in depth under good conditions and with good information.

Under the helm of Fishkin and Associate Director Alice Siu, CDD has conducted over 100 Deliberative Polls in 34 countries at varying levels of government and on a variety of topics. In Mongolia, the Parliament passed ‘The Law on Deliberative Polling’ that requires a national Deliberative Poll prior to any amendments to the constitution. In 2019, a national Deliberative Poll was conducted for such a purpose, and the Parliament subsequently passed amendments based on the Deliberative Poll. Also in 2019, a national US Deliberative Poll called America in One Room brought together over 500 participants in-person to Dallas, TX, where participants discussed policy proposals ranging from immigration to climate to foreign policy. The project was a national controlled experiment with participants recruited by NORC at the University of Chicago and yielded immense media coverage, including a video produced by CNN, a tweet from President Barack Obama, and a front-page article in the New York Times, as well as several Op-Eds in the Times and elsewhere.

In a talk co-hosted by the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies on May 11, 2022, political activist Sanaa Seif and award-winning journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous discussed the current political conditions in Egypt, the massive expansion of the carceral state under the rule of Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and the country’s role within the geopolitical shifts reshaping the region.

Framing the discussion was the newly released book, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated, authored by Seif's brother Alaa Abdel-Fattah, one of the most high-profile political prisoners in Egypt.

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

In a talk hosted by the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy on April 19, 2022, Erin A. Snider, Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, discussed his latest book Marketing Democracy: The Political Economy of Democracy Aid in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press 2022).

During the event, co-sponsored by Stanford’s Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies and the Center for African Studies, Snider examined the construction and practice of democracy aid in Washington, D.C., and in Egypt and Morocco — two of the highest recipients of US democracy aid in the region. Her research shows how democracy aid can work to strengthen rather than challenge authoritarian regimes.

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