EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Democracy in the Middle East? Transitions to and from democracy

DATE: Thursday, Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. Subsequent lectures in a series on the transition to democracy will follow throughout the year.

EVENT: The International Institute and its area studies centers and programs will sponsor a yearlong series of lectures by distinguished visitors on “Democratization, (De)Centralization, and Governance” around the world.

Mark Tessler, U-M’s new vice provost for international affairs and director of the International Institute, the Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professor of Political Science, will kick off the series with “What We Know and What We Need to Know about the Pursuit of Democracy in the Middle East.” He will base his comments on both his years of scholarship and his trip to the region this past summer.

In the last 20 years, an unprecedented number of countries have become democracies with about 48 countries democratizing and another 24 experiencing a democratic collapse in the 1990s. This collaborative, cross-center project will explore this phenomenon of democratization, including the broader political, economic, cultural, and social implications in developing and transitional countries.

Other fall term lecturers will discuss communal violence in South Asia, democratic consolidation and cultures of skepticism in Latin America, patterns of patronage and local governance in the Philippines, post-Communist regime change and electoral politics in Russia, the economic and political implications of centralization in Europe, and the challenges to building democracy in the Middle East.

Lecturers include a host of U-M experts as well as the dean of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the director of the Institute for Popular Democracy in Manila. The final speaker for the series is expected to be Shashi Tharoor, under-secretary-general for communications and public information at the United Nations, and assistant to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

PLACE: 1636 SSWB/International Institute, Central Campus map: http://www.umich.edu/news/ccamp.html

SPONSOR: The International Institute: http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/index.html

WEB LINKS: http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/iisite/events/2004-05_democratization_series.html