Sanctions Effective at Democracy Promotion

Sanctions Effective at Democracy Promotion

Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow Hoover Institute, In Search of Democracy, 2016, p. 432

Increasingly, as the sanctions weapon gets refined from a blunt instrument to a range of more targeted and precise tools of punishment, stigmatization, and deterrence, sanctions are becoming more credible and effective in shaping the behavior of authoritarian elites. Targeted sanctions on regime elites, including travel bans and asset freezes, can get the attention of venal rulers who may be more prepared to see their countries suffer than themselves. “The warning by senior US diplomats that the US Government would freeze personal off-shore assets of Ukrainian officials in the event of government repression had considerable restraining impact on potentially violent behavior.”

U.S. Democracy Assistance in Mideast Effective

George A. Laudato, USAID, 2011, House Hearing: Assessing U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities and Needs Amidst Economic Challenges in the Middle East, March 01, [http://www.hcfa.house.gov/112/65055.pdf], p. 19

David Welch, Assistant Secretary of State, 2008, House Hearing: U.S. Assistance to the Middle East: Old Tools for New Tasks?, May 8, [http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/42296.pdf], p. 9

Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow Hoover Institute, In Search of Democracy, 2016, p. 434-5

Repeatedly over the last two decades, US and international assistance for independent media, free elections, and civic organization have made significant, if not always immediate, contributions to democratic change. For example:

*Funding, training, and technical assistance have helped deploy tens of thousands of domestic vote monitors in dozens of transitional countries. Aid enabled any of these groups to organize parallel vote tabulations—independent “quick counts” of the vote—to deter vote fraud in countless instances and to expose it and reverse it in such famous cases as the Philippines in 1986 and then Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine in the color revolutions of the early 2000s.

* International election observers missions—with American NGOs like NDI, IRI, and the Carter Center playing leading roles—have helped to enhance the credibility and legitimacy of elections in many new and tense circumstances, such as South Korea in 1987, Bulgaria in 1990, and Ghana and the Dominican Republic in 1996; and to mediate bitter disputes over the electoral process in countries like Nicaragua, El Salvador, Albania, and Cambodia.

*Political parties reflecting diverse societal interests have received training and advice on how to develop membership bases, volunteer networks, campaign organizations, local branches, fundraising, public opinion polling, issue research, policy platforms, media messages, constituency relations, and democratic methods of choosing their leaders and candidates and involving members. Some of this has come during election campaigns, but much off it is ongoing organization building, helping parties to govern and legislate, to recruit and campaign, and to involve women and youth.

* Grants from NED, USAID, local American embassies, other American NGOs like the Soros Foundation, the Asia Foundation, and Freedom House, as well as private foundations and other international donors have facilitated the growth and greater impact of civil societies pressing for democracy and accountability. This has included not only independent media and think tanks but groups devoted to human rights, anticorruption, political reform, voter education, election monitoring, environmental defense, community development, consumer protection, and the rights of women, youth, minorities, and the disabled. Aid has gone to more traditional interest groups—such as trade unions and business chambers—to help them represent their interests and democratically pursue economic and social reforms.

*Grants and programs funded by USAID have also helped to build the governmental institutions of democracy by strengthening the autonomy, capacity, professionalism, and resources off the parliament and its committee structure, the judicial system, local government, and independent bodies that administer elections, monitor corruption, and regulate the company.