A Modest Defense of Politically Engaged Best Practices: The Case of Legislative Strengthening

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Guinn, David E.; Straussman, Jeffrey D.
• 署名单位: State University of New York (SUNY) System; University at Albany, SUNY; State University of New York (SUNY) System; University at Albany, SUNY
• 刊物名称: GOVERNANCE-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POLICY ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0952-1895
• DOI: 10.1111/gove.12192
• 发表日期: 2017
• 关键词: Democracy

摘要

Critics of donor-funded democracy promotion claim that these programs are frequently designed to reproduce social and governmental models drawn from developed countries and imposed on the recipient country without regard to local conditions, with experts parachuted in to provide guidance based on international best practices. The critique focuses on first-generation development with a neutral, technical focus, whereas democracy promotion has evolved toward a more politically engaged approach to programmingwhat we label as second-generation and, more recently, third-generation development practices. We apply this distinction to the area of legislative strengthening (LS) by describing its history from the post-World War II period to the present and provide examples of LS projects to support the argument. The challenge is to combine valuable insights from best practices from decades of experience while adapting them through political engagement with local partners and with bilateral donors.