Larry Diamond
Encyclopedia
Larry Diamond is a leading contemporary scholar in the field of democracy studies. He is presently a professor of Sociology and Political Science (by courtesy) at Stanford University
and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution
, a conservative policy think tank. At Stanford, he teaches courses on democratic development and supervises the democracy program at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. He has published extensively in the fields of foreign policy
, foreign aid, and democracy
.
Larry Diamond is also a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, which is Stanford University’s main center for research on international issues. At the Institute Diamond serves as the director of the Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. The CDDRL’s most recent accomplishment came in the spring of 2011 by building a technological community between Tehrir Square (Cairo, Egypt) and Silicon Valley. This community was fully focused on helping mobilize protesters in Egypt who eventually helped in the downfall of the oppressive President Mubarak.
Among the many governmental and nongovernmental agencies that he has advised, Larry Diamond served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2002 to 2003.
Diamond was named “ Teacher of the Year” in May 2007. At the June 2007 commencement ceremonies he was awarded the Dinkelspiel Award for Distinctive Contributions to Undergraduate Education. Among the many reasons for Diamond to receive this award it was cited that he fostered dialogue between Jewish and Muslim students.
His book Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, published in 2005, was one of the first public critical analysis of America’s postwar strategy in Iraq.
In early 2004, Diamond was a senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority
in Iraq. He is an advisory board member for the Roosevelt Institution
and a founding Co-Editor of the National Endowment for Democracy
's Journal of Democracy
. He is also a coordinator of Hoover Institute's Iran Democracy Project, along with Abbas Milani
and Michael McFaul
.http://www.stanford.edu/~ldiamond
In 2006, Professor Diamond was among the people interviewed by the Iraq Study Group
which was chaired by James Baker
and Lee H. Hamilton
.http://www.usip.org/isg/isg_meetings.pdf Diamond has served as an advisor to numerous governmental and international organizations at various points in his life, including the State Department, United Nations
, World Bank
, and U.S. Agency for International Development.http://www.hoover.org/bios/diamond.html
He was the dissertation adviser for Regina Ip
, former police chief of Hong Kong
during her years at Stanford.
Diamond has written and edited many pieces on the growth of democracy and its current recession on an international level. In his paper The Democratic Rollback: The Resurgence of the Predatory State, Diamond states that one of the main reasons for this recession in democracy is a surge of young democratic countries who employ rigged elections, intense intimidation of any opposing political party, and unstoppable expansion in executive power. What makes it worse is that many of these countries are still being accepted as democracies by western states. He cites Putin in Russia and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela as examples. Due to the growth of these corrupted semi-democracies, which Diamond calls electoral authoritarianism, there has been a worldwide fall in the confidence in democracy especially in developing countries.
Unlike many other political scientist, Diamond doesn’t hold economic development, or lack there of, as the number one factor in the decline of democracy. Diamond states that the efficiency of the government is the first problem. If the government cannot provide a safe and equal economic and political playing field then any work in promoting economic development will be useless. He cites the Kenyan President Kibaki as an example. Kibaki helped Kenya reach some of its highest levels of economic growth but failed to address massive corruption, which led to claims of fraud in his 2007 presidential election, which in turn exploded into violence.
Diamond believes if governance is not improved in democratic states, people will turn to authoritarian alternatives. This will then lead to predatory states. Predatory states produce predatory societies: people do not gain wealth and a better quality of life through ways beneficial to the entire country, but get rich by taking advantage of power and privilege, by stealing from the state, and diminishing the power of the law. In order to ensure predatory states do not occur, institutions must be put in place to establish control and order.
So that democracy can be revived, and sustained, throughout the world, the U.S. and other developed countries must play their part. The U.S. should only give financial aid to countries that are using the money to further develop their governance. This selectivity is defined in the Millennium Challenge Account (part of Bush’s foreign policy). Under this policy, it says a country will receive aid “whether they rule justly, whether they invest in basic health care and education, and whether they promote economic freedom.” The important thing to remember is promoting democracy will take time and effort.
His books include:
Interviews
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution
Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
, a conservative policy think tank. At Stanford, he teaches courses on democratic development and supervises the democracy program at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. He has published extensively in the fields of foreign policy
Foreign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
, foreign aid, and democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
.
Larry Diamond is also a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, which is Stanford University’s main center for research on international issues. At the Institute Diamond serves as the director of the Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. The CDDRL’s most recent accomplishment came in the spring of 2011 by building a technological community between Tehrir Square (Cairo, Egypt) and Silicon Valley. This community was fully focused on helping mobilize protesters in Egypt who eventually helped in the downfall of the oppressive President Mubarak.
Among the many governmental and nongovernmental agencies that he has advised, Larry Diamond served as a consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development from 2002 to 2003.
Diamond was named “ Teacher of the Year” in May 2007. At the June 2007 commencement ceremonies he was awarded the Dinkelspiel Award for Distinctive Contributions to Undergraduate Education. Among the many reasons for Diamond to receive this award it was cited that he fostered dialogue between Jewish and Muslim students.
His book Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq, published in 2005, was one of the first public critical analysis of America’s postwar strategy in Iraq.
In early 2004, Diamond was a senior adviser on governance to the Coalition Provisional Authority
Coalition Provisional Authority
The Coalition Provisional Authority was established as a transitional government following the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, members of the Multi-National Force – Iraq which was formed to oust the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003...
in Iraq. He is an advisory board member for the Roosevelt Institution
Roosevelt Institution
The Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, formerly the Roosevelt Institution, is the first student-run policy organization in the United States...
and a founding Co-Editor of the National Endowment for Democracy
National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy, or NED, is a U.S. non-profit organization that was founded in 1983 to promote US-friendly democracy by providing cash grants funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress...
's Journal of Democracy
Journal of Democracy
The Journal of Democracy is a quarterly academic journal established in 1990 and an official publication of the National Endowment for Democracy...
. He is also a coordinator of Hoover Institute's Iran Democracy Project, along with Abbas Milani
Abbas Milani
Abbas Malekzadeh Milani is an Iranian-American historian and author. Milani is a visiting professor of Political Science and the director of the Iranian Studies program at Stanford University. He is also a research fellow and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at Stanford University's...
and Michael McFaul
Michael McFaul
Michael Anthony McFaul is a Stanford University professor and the nominee for United States Ambassador to Russia. Prior to his nomination to the ambassadorial position, McFaul worked for the U.S. National Security Council as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director of Russian and...
.http://www.stanford.edu/~ldiamond
In 2006, Professor Diamond was among the people interviewed by the Iraq Study Group
Iraq Study Group
The Iraq Study group , was a ten-person bipartisan panel appointed on March 15, 2006, by the United States Congress, that was charged with assessing the situation in Iraq and the US-led Iraq War and making policy recommendations...
which was chaired by James Baker
James Baker
James Addison Baker, III is an American attorney, politician and political advisor.Baker served as the Chief of Staff in President Ronald Reagan's first administration and in the final year of the administration of President George H. W. Bush...
and Lee H. Hamilton
Lee H. Hamilton
Lee Herbert Hamilton is a former member of the United States House of Representatives and currently a member of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council. A member of the Democratic Party, Hamilton represented the 9th congressional district of Indiana from 1965 to 1999...
.http://www.usip.org/isg/isg_meetings.pdf Diamond has served as an advisor to numerous governmental and international organizations at various points in his life, including the State Department, United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, and U.S. Agency for International Development.http://www.hoover.org/bios/diamond.html
He was the dissertation adviser for Regina Ip
Regina Ip
Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, GBS JP is a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong , as well as the co-founder and current chairwoman of the New People's Party and Savantas Policy Institute....
, former police chief of Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
during her years at Stanford.
Views on Democracy
Despite the surge of democracy throughout the world up until the 90s, Diamond believes democracy must improve where it already exists before it can spread to other countries. He believes solving a country’s governance, rather than its economy, is the answer. Every democratic country needs to be held responsible for good governance, not just when it suits them. Without significant improvements in governance, economic growth will not be sustainable. As Diamond stated in his book, The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World, “for democratic structures to endure – and be worthy of endurance – they must listen to their citizens’ voices, engage their participation, tolerate their protests, protect their freedoms, and respond to their needs.”Diamond has written and edited many pieces on the growth of democracy and its current recession on an international level. In his paper The Democratic Rollback: The Resurgence of the Predatory State, Diamond states that one of the main reasons for this recession in democracy is a surge of young democratic countries who employ rigged elections, intense intimidation of any opposing political party, and unstoppable expansion in executive power. What makes it worse is that many of these countries are still being accepted as democracies by western states. He cites Putin in Russia and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela as examples. Due to the growth of these corrupted semi-democracies, which Diamond calls electoral authoritarianism, there has been a worldwide fall in the confidence in democracy especially in developing countries.
Unlike many other political scientist, Diamond doesn’t hold economic development, or lack there of, as the number one factor in the decline of democracy. Diamond states that the efficiency of the government is the first problem. If the government cannot provide a safe and equal economic and political playing field then any work in promoting economic development will be useless. He cites the Kenyan President Kibaki as an example. Kibaki helped Kenya reach some of its highest levels of economic growth but failed to address massive corruption, which led to claims of fraud in his 2007 presidential election, which in turn exploded into violence.
Diamond believes if governance is not improved in democratic states, people will turn to authoritarian alternatives. This will then lead to predatory states. Predatory states produce predatory societies: people do not gain wealth and a better quality of life through ways beneficial to the entire country, but get rich by taking advantage of power and privilege, by stealing from the state, and diminishing the power of the law. In order to ensure predatory states do not occur, institutions must be put in place to establish control and order.
So that democracy can be revived, and sustained, throughout the world, the U.S. and other developed countries must play their part. The U.S. should only give financial aid to countries that are using the money to further develop their governance. This selectivity is defined in the Millennium Challenge Account (part of Bush’s foreign policy). Under this policy, it says a country will receive aid “whether they rule justly, whether they invest in basic health care and education, and whether they promote economic freedom.” The important thing to remember is promoting democracy will take time and effort.
His books include:
- The Spirit of Democracy (Times Books, 2008)
- Squandered Victory: The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq (Owl Books, 2005, ISBN 0-8050-7868-1)
- Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation
- Promoting Democracy in the 1990s
- Class, Ethnicity, and Democracy in Nigeria
- Political Culture and Democracy in developing Countries ed.
Quotes
- "If we had listened to the various reports and analyses that had been prepared, many of them from within the U.S. Government, in advance of the war, we would have realized that Iraqis would not stand for an occupation, and certainly not one combining in its authority two countries they deeply distrusted and resented, the United States and Britain (Iraq's former colonial ruler)."
External references
- Larry Diamond Biography provided by Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
Interviews
- "No Exit Strategy" - David RieffDavid RieffDavid Rieff is an American polemicist and pundit. His books have focused on issues of immigration, international conflict, and humanitarianism...
reviews Diamond's book in The Nation magazine. - http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://streaming.scmp.com/podcasting/upload/news_today_september19.mp3 South China Morning PostSouth China Morning PostThe South China Morning Post , together with its Sunday edition, the Sunday Morning Post, is an English-language Hong Kong newspaper, published by the SCMP Group with a circulation of 104,000....
podcast] in which Larry Diamond shares his views on Hong Kong political reforms in a podcast interview with scmp.com reporter, James Moore, on September 19, 2006. Interview 3mins 43secs into podcast.