Sometimes you come across an article or a post that makes you say, “Huh, now that’s interesting!” This research from two noted academics made me do exactly that.
In 2007, a developmental economist and a physicist joined forces to try to paint a clearer picture of one of the most complex systems on earth: a nation’s economy. Albert Einstein once said that “politics is far more complicated than physics.” So too is economics, it would seem. Ricardo Hausmann and Cesar Hidalgo created something that they call the “product space” to show how development is bound up in the complex structures of production. While we intuitively know that complexity matters, it was their research that allowed for it to be measured and mapped. The result gets to the heart of...
Photo (c) RIA Novosti. Sergei Venyavsky.
A bit of interesting news – The Russian Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) is getting medieval on corrupt officials. The party just submitted a draft law in the Russian parliament that would brand public officials with a K (the first letter in a Russian word for corruption) on their hand for giving or receiving bribes. In addition to this, the proposal calls for banning public officials convicted of corruption from holding positions susceptible to bribery. The idea is that branding people for corruption would create a social disincentive to engage in bribery.
Do you think this would work?
The proposal got me thinking, however – what other unconventional anti-corruption efforts have been proposed or implemented? For instance…
India: A...
It’s not a headline you see too often, so just what is going on that a group of business organizations would get together and recommend a tax overhaul that includes greater enforcement and reduced exemptions for wides swaths of the economy? How bad is it, you ask?
In today’s New York Times, Sabrina Tavernise looks at how rich, tax-dodging Pakistanis have created a system by elites and for elites. The result is predictable: resentment among the poor, much underground economic activity, widespread corruption, and fuel for insurgents.
This is not news to Pakistanis. In less than 5 minutes from 1/2 a world away, I can find out who has expensive flats in London and what kind of fancy car they drive. This is the stuff Pakistanis see and talk about on a day-to-day basis. The...
In order to achieve the necessary public accountability for a functional democracy, a government must rely on its citizens for its existence. Currently in Ethiopia, the population’s well-being largely relies on the government. In this challenging environment, improving local capacity for economic policy dialogue may provide the groundwork for reversing this unsustainable situation.
The Ethiopian government owns nearly all fertile farmland and controls fertilizer distribution. Agriculture is Ethiopia’s chief industry, employing 85 percent of the population, which leaves many Ethiopians’ incomes at the mercy of the government authority. Without sufficient alternatives to provide for themselves economically, citizens have few means or incentives to challenge their government. The...
cover of the IWA survey on corruption in Afghanistan
The findings (summarized in this NYT story) of a recent Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA) survey on corruption attitudes are interesting if not unsurprising: corruption is widespread, bribe amounts have increased over the years, and corruption is perceived as a normal part of dealings with the state.
Perhaps, the most startling statistic is that average bribes among those who paid them (28% of Afghan households have paid bribes at least once last year) amount to about 30% of per capita income (!!!). If that’s not enough to convince you of the magnitude of the problem, consider this – the amount of bribes more than doubled in the period between 2007 and 2009, reaching $1 billion. And, coinciding with trends in other...
An IRI-trained pollster at work in Pakistan's Punjab region. (Photo: IRI)
In the United States and Europe, many political parties, advocacy groups and media outlets value public opinion research as a tool for better understanding citizens’ needs and desires. That, however, is not always the case in the Middle East and North Africa where many governments and party officials believe they already recognize the issues important to their communities or worry that public opinion research may change the status quo.
Despite these obstacles, survey research organizations in the region have significantly improved their capabilities to conduct meaningful public opinion research in the last decade. Besides shedding light on the value of their services to policymakers and reformers, IRI has...
A "Campaign 25" billboard produced as part of an IRI advocacy program.
For those of us who work in the sphere of democracy promotion, one of our priorities is to get more people involved and excited about participating in the democratic process. Doing do is not always easy through regular training seminars and roundtables, which are generally more technical and academic in nature, and can end without a sense of tangible outcomes. Advocacy campaigns as training tools can provide an alternative way of approaching our work.
An advocacy campaign is simple: it is a campaign to advocate either voluntary behavioral changes, such as encouraging more people to vote on Election Day, or specific changes in regulations or laws.
An advocacy campaign as a training tool has many advantages...
Over the recent Fourth of July weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton gave a major speech on democracy at the High Level Meeting of the Community of Democracies in Krakow, Poland, which was held from July 2-4.
I was privileged to have attended the conference on behalf of CIPE — and to have seen Secretary Clinton’s speech in person. I could have written this blog about some of the thematic elements in her speech — like the importance of a vibrant civil society in a functioning democracy and the need for civil society to be defended from the increasing instances of repression that they are currently experiencing in dozens of countries. Or I could have expounded on her references to “democratic governance,” the importance of “well-functioning...
Recently, I published an article, “The Peruvian Amazon is not Avatar” in the Peruvian press to commemorate the one year anniversary of the violent clashes that took place in Bagua in the Peruvian Amazon, leaving 34 people dead. The Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) has spent the past year in the jungle researching this issue. I’ve spoken with many indigenous leaders about their fears – and their hopes – in the face of the encroaching forces of globalization that have arrived in their no longer isolated part of the world and motivated the Bagua uprising. ILD has learned a lot over the past year and has some interesting solutions–so many, in fact, that ILD intends to publish a book about them in September. My article is a preview of ILD’s findings and...
A few weeks ago, the Romanian Federation of Non-Governmental Organizations for Development (FOND) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) hosted the third annual edition of the Romanian Development Camp, a summer school which has focused on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Romania’s relatively new donor status. This year’s summer school is the first time that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has co-organized the event, as part of a larger MFA strategy to consolidate institutional capacity and to raise public awareness as to the importance of development aid cooperation. One of its most notable results is the creation, following last year’s edition of the Camp, of the first post-graduate program in Development Studies (MA).
This year focused on emerging and...
In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, businesses around the world must be the engines of economic growth and job creation. To achieve that goal, businesses need a legal and regulatory environment that fosters entrepreneurship and, importantly, they need to be able to transparently provide input on proposed laws and regulations that affect them. When this public-private dialogue does not happen, the consequences for the quality of economic and trade policies can be very damaging.
In this Feature Service article, John Murphy, VP of International Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, asks crucial questions: How can regulators best engage with the industries they regulate? How can they produce “smart regulations”? He says, “Citizens entrust legislators to provide broad...
Last week the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) Leaders Summit convened in New York, gathering more than 1,200 corporate executives, government officials and civil society leaders. The UNGC is an initiative that gathers businesses committed to the ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption. Launched ten years ago, it grew from just a handful of participants to about 8,000 today, with an ambitious goal to reach 20,000 participants by 2020.
As the UNGC grows, however, it is crucial that new participants go beyond just signing their name on a dotted line, that they move from ideas and statements to action. Practical examples of successful implementation of the UNGC principles are of key importance here. CIPE, in cooperation...
Toward the end of last week the Caux Roundtable (CRT) tweeted that Asian millionaires have overtaken European millionaires. That isn’t too surprising; Asia does contain about half the world’s population, and Asian economies have captured the world’s fleeting attention thanks to consistently strong economic growth and dramatic reductions in poverty. What really caught my attention was how that fact went in tandem with the second half of the tweet: “Power is shifting east.”
Does political empowerment follow economic empowerment? CRT’s tweet echoes the sentiment that it does. When you have a larger share of the economic pie, others take you more seriously. In earlier historical periods the only way to get a bigger share was by conquering...
Samantha Reinders for The Wall Street Journal: A street vendor in Cape Town, South Africa, says his knock-off soccer shirts are his biggest sellers.
The World Cup is gaining steam as group play is almost over and the remaining teams are getting ready to duel in the elimination rounds. [Annoying for many, but not for me] vuvuzelas (have you checked out the new youtube vuvuzela button yet?) are not the only fan feature of the tournament. As with any other major sporting event – it is hard not to notice the many hundreds of thousands of fans clad in their national teams gear.
However, you have to wonder how those jerseys, hats, t-shirts, scarves, and other memorabilia are making their way on the backs, heads, and shoulders of the fans?
Trade in counterfeit soccer gear, it seems, is...
For farmers all across Africa, accessing capital to improve yields is a constant frustration. As business solutions to poverty and food security have come to the fore in international development, the plight of Africa’s farmers seeking capital is nothing new. At the same time, while not capturing nearly as much attention, investors on the other side of the table face the very same obstacles.
Stung by recent financial turmoil related to opaque and complex investments with weak if any ties to real value creation, a growing body of investors are looking for simpler opportunities that create real value on the ground—social as well as financial value. Institutional Investor magazine recently featured SilverStreet Fund, a London-based private equity fund looking to create value on...
The BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig ablaze. (Photo: U.S. Coast Guard)
What if the oil well currently leaking in the Gulf of Mexico were owned by Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil company, and not BP? This is an apt question to ask upon reading Ian Bremmer’s new book, “The End of the Free Market,” and it points to the challenges introduced by the rise of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) across the world.
Bremmer notes that of the top 15 energy companies, two are privately owned. The rest, controlling 3/4 of the world’s oil reserves, include such SOEs as Gazprom, Petrobras, Saudi Aramco, Petronas, Petróleos de Venezuela, China National Petroleum Corporation and the National Iranian Oil Company. ”In each case, the state is using markets to create wealth...
In April the UK parliament passed the UK Bribery Act, which significantly enhances the penalties for giving and receiving bribes and extends the reach of the UK government in pursuing allegations of corruption that occur abroad. The action in the UK coupled with the U.S. government significantly increasing its investigations in to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has many businesses reexamining their internal controls and redoubling efforts in compliance.
Ethics and morals are things that are typically associated with an individual’s cultural background, so are ethics an issue when doing business across cultures, or is there some basic underlying ethical principles that we all follow? Recently we had the opportunity to sit down and talk with one of the...
As the world continues to slowly and painfully recover from the economic recession the dominant question is, without fiscal stimulus, what policies can stave off a double-dip recession? The G-20 is trying to address such predicament as well as global governance in a world that is in need of better coordination on international politics. While the G-20 is not what it could be, their meetings provide clues to their concept of global politics and its implications. The group’s recent conference in Busan, South Korea was followed by a communiqué containing two key points.
First, the communiqué confirms the G-20 position regarding the “key” governmental role “in restoring growth” while also reaffirming that “the members are willing to safeguard the economic recovery...
A brief video travelog from a trip to Kabul, a place about which I’m often asked…
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What is the role of social media in democratic movements? Does social media lessen popular commitment to political causes or shift the balance of power toward the citizenry? Recent protests in Iran, Moldova, Kenya, and elsewhere are proving to be the ultimate testing grounds for social media in authoritarian politics.
SMS, Twitter, Facebook – in the summer of last year these communication tools grew into something more profound than simple social outlets. All across Iran, people took to the streets bearing mobile phones and were backed by an array of online citizens. At first a tool for the development and distribution of news where none would have existed before, social media then turned into apparatus for organization and even revolution.
Social media is founded on...
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) cripples economies, and it is built to evade. Besides HIV’s notorious ability to mutate and thus thwart treatment–let alone vaccination–it is also virtually symptom free and thus undetectable without lab testing for up to 10 years or more. The only way to conclusively determine that HIV is besieging one’s immune system is to detect the antibodies produced in the bloodstream to counter the virus. Corruption behaves in much the same way.
HIV epidemics cripple economies by targeting working age adults, the most productive members of society, eventually destroying their immune systems and leaving them with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Corruption cripples economies by undermining the private sector, reducing the...
CIPE is pleased to announce the release of the 2009 Annual Report, celebrating the achievements of CIPE’s partners and projects around the world. The 2009 Annual Report showcases the impact of partners like the Confederation of Entrepreneurship of Belarus, which prevented the elimination of 40 percent of Belarusian small and medium-sized enterprises; and L’Institute Arabe des Chefs d’Entreprise in Tunisia, which opened the first-ever North African Center for Corporate Governance. The report also features milestone celebrations for CIPE’s 25th anniversary year: CIPE’s inaugural Hernando de Soto Award for Democracy and the “Democracy that Delivers” conference.
The opening letter from CIPE Chairman Greg Lebedev says it best: “CIPE has been privileged to partner with...
Wade Channell shares great insights on reconstructing legal structures for lasting success in his new essay, “Urgency and Legitimacy: Tensions in Rebuilding the Legal Structure for Business in Post-Conflict Countries.”
“Urgent lawmaking is not the same as urgent building projects… Normally, laws derive from the surrounding culture and power dynamics, with strong historical underpinnings as well. Unlike a machine in which parts can simply be exchanged, the legal system is dynamic, much more akin to a human body in which parts cannot simply be exchanged because of the complexity of factors involved in the transplant… The primary victim of urgent lawmaking is legitimacy.”
Mr. Channell calls for a voice for business in post-conflict reforms in order to...
Advocacy is an interesting concept. When you first talk to business organizations about it you undoubtedly hear: “of course we do it, there is nothing to it.” When you unpack the definition of advocacy and explain to people that it is much more than picking up the phone and calling your contact in a government office to resolve an issue, you get a different reaction: “its too complex, how can we do it?”
We usually describe advocacy in two ways – what it is and what it is not. Advocacy is about changing public policies or public opinion. It is not about obtaining preferential treatment for one company or solving problems concerning day-to-day business activities of an individual member of a business association.
One of the best advocacy strategies is...
Last week, I was reading one of Larry Diamond’s articles and came across an interesting point on three paradoxes of modern democracy. He outlined these paradoxes two decades ago, but they seem as relevant today as they were back then.
First: Democracy requires both competition and conflict, but too much conflict leads to instability. In its original sense, conflict really means disagreement, but the problem if that disagreements can spill over into actual conflicts that lead to instability. You need to allow conflict, but how do you decide when enough is enough before its too late?
Second: Democracy should balance power and governance, making sure that power is not concentrated in one set of hands and is dispersed throughout the system. Yet, governments also need to be able to...
Looking at our tag cloud, and having looked at a recent cloud from another global democracy site, I’m interested in how the way we talk about democracy compares to what others are saying and what you’d like to hear. Thoughts on topics we can engage you more on here at the CIPE Development Blog? We’d love to hear from you!...
Al-Saadi, Chairman of the Iraqi Securities Commission, (seated fourth from the left) at the CIPE headquarters in Washington, DC last week. (Photo: CIPE)
On April 28, CIPE hosted Chairman Abdel Razzak Al-Saadi of the Iraqi Securities Commission (ISC), at its headquarters in Washington, DC. Although Iraq is still emerging from conflict and facing sizeable security threats, Chairman Al-Saadi is optimistic and reiterated that Iraq is open for business. Since its inception in 2004,the ISC has listed over 90 companies to the Iraqi Stock Exchange. With new investment and entrepreneurship blooming in Iraq, the country has a window of opportunity to rebuild much of what the conflict has damaged or destroyed.
Mr. Al-Saadi stressed that unemployment remains a significant problem in the region, as...
What makes for a successful approach in providing assistance in the development of strong political parties in transitional democracies? In the European Union (EU), at least, there are as many answers to this question as there are countries in which to ask it.
The Germans, of course, have been at the project the longest – since the establishment of the first major party foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, in 1925. German foundations are, in many ways, the trailblazers for all who have followed and the model to which successors around the world are compared. Today, the six German party foundations are a potent force in the development and training of domestic activists (their original and enduring mandate), but also in building democratic institutions abroad.
Beginning in...
I’ve been watching lots of great videos lately–all entries to the Democracy Video Challenge that CIPE, the Dept of State and a number of democracy, youth, and film groups sponsor. This year’s entries offer some great insights into how democracy is viewed and discussed around the world. It’s a diverse opinion, sometimes humorous and sometimes poignant. The Polish entry using toilet paper as a motif made me laugh with memories of Crepto from my Hungary days. There are so many I’d like to highlight, but I’ll restrain myself and pick two for now–come to the Hirshhorn tonight to see more! We’ll be in the Ring Auditorium at 8:00 p.m.
This entry from Iran is powerful, and like many from countries that want more democracy, it defines democracy...
On today’s tenth annual celebration of World Intellectual Property Day, it’s worth noting that big multinationals aren’t the only firms that have use for them. Intellectual property (IP) rights also apply to franchising, which is an important step for the growth of small, entrepreneurial firms. Without enforceable intellectual property rights, anyone can simply take a successful name and logo and slap it on counterfeit goods, undermining the original firm’s attempt to achieve scale through franchising.
A report funded by the Templeton Foundation lists poor intellectual property frameworks as one of the obstacles to franchising in emerging markets. It’s hard enough to find profitable and replicable models to expand into franchises; poor supporting policy...