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CSD Home > About the Center > News > News Details

News Details:

Title: Talk by Prof. Larry Diamond sounds alarm about retreats of democracy worldwide

Date Entered: 2009-01-26  Details: Professor Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institution, Editor of the Journal of Demcoracy, and perhaps the world's leading expert on democracy aid and the conditions that foster democracy, offered a mixed picture of the prospects for democratization. In his lunch-time talk January 22, 2009, the inaugural "O'Melveny and Myers Political Development Lecture," under the auspices of the UCI Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), Diamond spoke about "The Spirit of Democracy: The Global Boom, Recession and Renewal." He noted that, while the proportion of states in the world that can be considered democratic is near its highest level in history, democratization has virtually ground to a halt, and there are several strategically important countries which have reverted to more authoritarian regimes. Moreover, the global economic recession may lead to more backsliding invulnerable democracies, though another result of the global financial crisis is that the petro-dollars which accompanied many of the recent corruption-linked slides into authoritarianism in places like Russia and Venezuela will be in increasingly short supply. Finally, he added that the established democratic countries should redouble their efforts to promote good governance and democracy through innovative foreign aid practices. In a further event, co-hosted by CSD and the World Affairs Council of Orange County, Professor Diamond expanded on these themes at a dinner talk at the Costa Mesa Hilton.