Foreign aid has traditionally been structured to promote economic growth and meet the basic needs of poor communities in the developing world. In recent years, Western donors have introduced new initiatives that are ostensibly designed to strengthen democratic governance in recipient countries. These new initiatives, commonly referred to as democracy assistance, have a mixed record of success. Such assistance has helped fortify democratic institutions and processes in some countries but has produced few noticeable benefits in other countries. In Promoting Democracy, Manal A. Jamal seeks to understand why democracy assistance succeeds in some contexts but fails in others. Jamal focuses on countries transitioning from conflict to peace under the auspices of mediated political settlements, or peace accords.
Past studies have generally considered the democracy assistance itself to be the key determinant of success. It thereby constitutes the independent variable in the analysis. In Jamal’s view, we should take a step back and understand the context in which Western donors are operating. For countries emerging from civil conflict, she argues, the political settlement should be the focus of analysis. The peace accord shapes the nature, objectives, and impact of democracy assistance. The political settlement should therefore be considered the independent variable and democracy assistance the intervening or mediating variable. For Jamal, the success of democracy assistance is largely a reflection of the political settlement.
Jamal goes on to argue that political settlements can be either “inclusive” or “noninclusive.” Inclusive peace accords enjoy widespread societal support and permit the political participation of all major groups, while noninclusive accords have more limited societal support and restrict popular participation in governance. The inclusivity of a political settlement shapes donor assistance in three important respects: it affects which groups receive funding and which groups do not and the strategies adopted by different actors; it impacts the amount of funding and type of programs outside donors are likely to promote; and it determines the access of social groups to political institutions and the pattern of state-society relations.
The inclusivity of the political settlement thus plays a central role in determining the character and relative impact of democracy assistance. In countries with inclusive political settlements, Western assistance will probably advance civil society development and democratic governance. Conversely, in countries with noninclusive political settlements, democracy assistance is “bound to fail” (9). In these contexts, democracy assistance will “minimize cooperation, exacerbate political polarization, and weaken civil society” (9). For Jamal, “democracy promotion in non-inclusive contexts will … undermine the longer term prospects for democratization” (22).
Jamal tests her argument through a comparative analysis of El Salvador and the Palestinian territories. In both cases, mediated peace accords were adopted in the early 1990s in an attempt to resolve longstanding conflicts. In El Salvador, the Cha- pultepec Peace Agreement, which was signed by the Salvadoran Government and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in 1991, brought an immediate ceasefire and instituted a range of progressive economic and social reforms. Jamal observes that the agreement enjoyed a high level of societal support and ensured widespread political participation.
The inclusive nature of the political settlement influenced the distribution of Western aid to El Salvador. The various associations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) had roughly the same access to resources and opportunities. As a result, grassroots organizations, especially women’s groups—which receive particular attention in this volume—but also labor, human rights, and civic education NGOs were able to maintain high levels of political activity in the post-accord period and to forge horizontal linkages with other societal groups. Because these groups were able to mobilize their constituencies and engage the state, a stronger foundation was laid for democratic development.
Jamal contrasts the Salvadoran experience with that of the Palestinian Territories. Beginning with the Madrid Peace Process in 1991 and continuing with the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993 and 1995, a concerted effort was made to resolve the conflict between Palestinians and the government of Israel. In this case, however, Jamal contends that the political settlement had less societal support and did not ensure sufficient political participation. Most of the Palestinian political organizations, she argues, “did not support or endorse the peace accords” (21). For Jamal, “the non-inclusivity of the Oslo Accords and subsequent implementation agreements further polarized the Palestinian political landscape” (66).
The noninclusive nature of the political settlement influenced the distribution of Western aid. While the international community provided the Palestinian Authority (PA), as well as certain Palestinian NGOs on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with attractive aid packages, the provision of funding was contingent on “some level of support for the peace accords, or, more precisely, non-opposition” (104). Western donors worked to promote groups that supported the accords and to marginalize groups opposed to them.
Jamal suggests that the unequal distribution of Western aid to the Palestinian territories undermined civil society and the long-term prospects for democratic development. The organization of civil society became characterized by vertical linkages between the professionalized NGOs that supported the accords and received funding and all the other grassroots groups. In this new structure, the previously active grassroots constituencies, at best, were mere recipients of services from the professionalized NGOs and not active, engaged members. These once-thriving movements no longer had the capability to organize and coordinate mass actions. Membership dramatically declined in women’s organizations, which Jamal again emphasizes, as well as in labor unions, student groups, and professional syndicates. Moreover, the increased polarization resulted in “tension, animosity, and mistrust among the various groups” (70).
Jamal’s analysis is based on more than a decade of empirical research. Extended research trips to both El Salvador and the Palestinian territories allowed her to conduct more than 150 semistructured, open-ended interviews with political leaders, grassroots activists, members of NGOs, and program officers of donor agencies.
Jamal also attended numerous political events in both nations and drew on primary and secondary materials, including government documents, institutional reports, and newspaper articles.
Comparing El Salvador with the Palestinian territories does raise some methodological concerns. The two nations have profound historical, political, economic, social, geographic, religious, ethnic, and cultural differences. These differences clearly influence the effectiveness of democracy assistance well beyond what might result from differences in their respective political settlements. Jamal’s contention that the “similar political and organizing trajectories” of the two nations, and the common time period, justify this comparison is not completely convincing (20).
Greater attention might have been placed on the divergent sources of Western aid. Jamal tends to group together aid from Western governments with aid from international NGOs. Although she acknowledges the different sources, she contends that “democracy programs do not vary extensively depending on the donor” (12). Close analysis of the actual content of these programs from different sources might suggest something different. Moreover, much of the aid that is included in this analysis was not specifically structured to promote democratic reform or strengthen civil societies. In both cases, outside assistance was considerably broader and included a range of postwar reconstruction and social infrastructural investments. In fact, Jamal concedes that in the Salvadoran case in particular, Western donors “were more interested in production-related programs or economic development-related programs, as opposed to more political objectives” (89).
Jamal’s method for measuring the success of democracy assistance is also a concern. She places most emphasis on civil society development and popular mobilizations. “A more dense and plural civil society that is inclusive of broad social sectors,” she argues, “will better contribute to the development of democracy” (16). For Jamal, civil society groups should be able to forge horizontal linkages with one another and engage local, state, and national governments. While a robust, participatory, and representative civil society is without question a critical component of democracy, the impact of democracy assistance on other political institutions, processes, and practices in both contexts might have received greater attention.
Despite these concerns, Promoting Democracy makes an important contribution to the study of democracy assistance and democratic development. Although the relative success of democracy assistance is certainly influenced by a wide range of domestic factors, Jamal makes a compelling case for recognizing the importance of political settlements in postconflict societies. Clearly, democracy assistance can play a constructive role in building more open, just, and equitable political systems in the developing world. Close attention to past experience, as Jamal suggests, will help enhance the effectiveness of democracy promotion efforts in the future. There is little doubt that broad-based economic and social progress, which improves conditions for the poorest communities, requires inclusive, representative, and effective political systems.
