ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:96111902.TDH
DATE:11/19/96
TITLE:19-11-96  AID TO POLITICAL PARTIES IN EMERGING DEMOCRACIES GROWING

TEXT:
(More organizations and countries involved) (570)
By David Pitts
USIA Staff Writer

Washington -- International assistance to political parties in
emerging democracies has increased markedly in recent years and is
having a positive effect on democratic development, according to
experts involved in assistance programs.

Speaking November 18 at a conference on political parties sponsored by
the National Endowment for Democracy, Michael Pinto-Duschinsky,
chairman of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, founded in
England in 1992, said the "enormous growth" in special
democracy-building foundations has occurred in small countries as well
as large.

In addition to the United States, Germany and England, countries as
small as Sweden and the Netherlands now have organizations whose
objective is to assist political parties in emerging democracies,
Pinto-Duschinsky noted.

The assistance being provided, however, is "fundamentally different"
than that given during the Cold War, when "much of the aid originated
in intelligence organizations and was used for ideological purposes,"
Pinto-Duschinsky said.

Now the assistance goes to all kinds of political parties with a
myriad of viewpoints, he said, adding that it also is much more varied
and focused on non-monetary aid, such as equipment and facilities and
training and development, as well as direct cash assistance.

Lorne Kramer, president of the International Republican Institute
(IRI), said his organization currently has programs in 29 emerging
democracies. "The focus of most of our work is on political party
building that can most hasten democratic development," he remarked.

"We concentrate on those countries where we can make a difference,"
Kramer continued -- from South Africa to Bosnia. He stressed that "a
cookie-cutter approach does not work," that programs must be tailored
to particular circumstances in each country. In some countries,
assistance is provided to all non-authoritarian political parties, in
others to particular parties opposed to the governing party, which may
have had a longstanding organizational edge, he explained.

Kramer also noted that IRI is "working to build political parties that
are based more on issues and less on personalities." In addition, "it
is important to assist with grass-roots party organization and not
just with the central party apparatus."

Ken Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute (NDI),
said "vibrant political parties are essential to democracy," and that
is why NDI provides assistance.

To those who say foreign assistance to political parties is
interventionism, Wollack said, "non-intervention is, in fact,
intervention because it gives an edge to authoritarian forces."

Wollack stressed that assistance should not primarily be aimed at
campaigns and elections, but instead at a wide variety of issues that
can determine the overall health of political parties, such as:
membership recruitment; public opinion and policy research; regional
operations; coalition building; ethics; and, outreach to women, youth
and minorities.

Political parties are inherently competitive, but cooperation also is
important, Wollack added. The parties can cooperate on such matters as
"civic education, party codes of conduct and fundraising rules."

As far as the growing number of organizations promoting democracy and
political parties are concerned, both within the United States and
overseas, Wollack said, international cooperation "is essential." That
means not only cooperation between the assistance organizations
themselves, located mainly in the West, but cooperation also with
indigenous and regional organizations to ensure that aid is funneled
in the most effective and culturally sensitive way, he added.
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