National Endowment for Democracy
The National Endowment for Democracy is a U.S. agency that was founded in 1983 with the stated goal of promoting democracy abroad. Some have described it as a non governmental organization while others have described it as a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization. It is funded primarily through an annual allocation from the U.S. Congress in the form of a grant awarded through the United States Information Agency. It was created by The Democracy Program as a bipartisan, private, non-profit corporation, and in turn acts as a grant-making foundation. In addition to its grants program, NED also supports and houses the Journal of Democracy, the World Movement for Democracy, the International Forum for Democratic Studies, the Reagan–Fascell Fellowship Program, the Network of Democracy Research Institutes, and the Center for International Media Assistance.
History
Founding
A bill was introduced in April 1967 by Congressman Dante Fascell to create an institute of International Affairs. And although the bill did not pass it led to discussions on Capitol Hill to establish an institution in which democracy efforts abroad would benefit the U.S. as well as countries struggling for freedom and self- government.In a 1982 speech at the Palace of Westminster, President Ronald Reagan proposed an initiative, before the British Parliament, "to foster the infrastructure of democracy—the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities." The U.S. government, through USAID, contracted The American Political Foundation to study democracy promotion, which became known as "The Democracy Program." The Program recommended the creation of a bipartisan, private, non-profit corporation to be known as the National Endowment for Democracy. NED, though non-governmental, would be funded primarily through annual appropriations from the U.S. government and subject to congressional oversight. The State Department and United States Information Agency proposed the Endowment to encourage and facilitate exchanges between democratic institutions through private sectors; promote nongovernmental participation in democratic training programs; strengthening democratic electoral processes abroad in cooperation with indigenous democratic forces; fostering cooperation between American private sector groups and those abroad "dedicated to the cultural values, institutions, and organizations of democratic pluralism.", and encouraging democratic development consistent with the interests of both the U.S and the other groups receiving assistance.
In 1983, the House Foreign Affairs Committee proposed legislation to provide initial funding of $31.3 million for NED as part of the State Department Authorization Act, because NED was in its beginning stages of development the appropriation was set at $18 million. Included in the legislation was $13.8 million for the Free Trade Union Institute, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, $2.5 million for an affiliate of the National Chamber Foundation, and $5 million each for two party institutes, which was later eliminated by a vote of 267–136. The conference report on H.R. 2915 was adopted by the House on November 17, 1983 and the Senate the following day. On November 18, 1983, articles of incorporation were filed in the District of Columbia to establish the National Endowment for Democracy as a nonprofit organization.
Overview
NED is a grant-making foundation, distributing funds to private non-governmental organizations for promoting democracy abroad. Half of NED's funding is allocated annually to four main U.S. organizations: the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, the Center for International Private Enterprise, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and the International Republican Institute, formerly known as the National Republican Institute for International Affairs. The other half of NED's funding is awarded annually to hundreds of non-governmental organizations based abroad which apply for support.Board
NED's long-serving president is Carl Gershman, former Senior Counselor to the United States Representative to the United Nations and former Executive Director of Social Democrats USA.Activities
Funding of election monitors and democratic advocacy
NED does not directly fund any political party, as this is forbidden by law. According to NED, it funds election monitoring and also civic education about voting, such as student-led "get-out-the-vote" campaigns.Western Europe
NED also funded political groups in the democracies of Western Europe in the 1980s. The French newspaper Libération published a report which claimed that the U.S. funded the National Inter-University Union.Ukraine
In their 2012 report, NED indicated that it spent US $3,381,824 on programs in the Ukraine, encompassing the areas NGO Strengthening, Political Processes, Human Rights, Accountability, Developing Market Economy, Freedom of Information, Democratic Ideas and Values, Promoting Freedom of Assembly, Strengthening Political Institutions, and Monitoring Electoral Processes.Democracy Award
NED's Board of Directors annually gives a Democracy Award to recognize "the courageous and creative work of individuals and organizations that have advanced the cause of human rights and democracy around the world." The trophy is a small-scale replica of the Goddess of Democracy that was constructed during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.Notable recipients include: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, former President of Mexico Vicente Fox, and journalist Veton Surroi. Past speakers at the award's ceremony have included U.S. Senator John McCain, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Recipients
Reaction
Praise and criticism
Writing in Slate in 2004, Brendan I. Koerner wrote that, "Depending on whom you ask, the NED is either a nonprofit champion of liberty or an ideologically driven meddler in world affairs."In a 2004 article for the Washington Post Michael McFaul argues that the NED is not an instrument of U.S. foreign policy; as an example of this, he states that the NED was willing to fund pro-democratic organizations even when the U.S. government was supportive of non-democratic governments in the region.
Throughout the course of a 2010 investigation by ProPublica, Paul Steiger, the then editor in chief of the publication said that "those who spearheaded creation of NED have long acknowledged it was part of an effort to move from covert to overt efforts to foster democracy" and cited as evidence a 1991 interview of then-NED president Allen Weinstein by David Ignatius, in which Weinstein said that "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
Within Congress, early opposition to NED focused on four issues: the organization's structure, its independence, its mission, and purported redundancy to other U.S. activities. The NED itself has responded to the various criticisms that have been leveled against it:
- With respect to NED's structure, some within Congress criticized the NED's interrelationship with its four affiliated institutions: the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, International Republican Institute, Center for International Private Enterprise, and Solidarity Center, which are affiliated with Democratic, Republican, business, and labor interests, respectively. NED responded that the allocation of funds to these grantees serves the national interest; that grants allocated to these grantees have to meet the same criteria as other grantees; and that "the entire concept of 'competitiveness,' as applied to NED's relationship with the Institutes, is misguided" because NED "does not operate by deciding what democracy projects should be funded and then sending out requests for proposals. Rather, it responds to the needs of democratic groups abroad and funds those requests that fit into its program priorities."
- With respect to independence, some critics took issue with NED's non-government status and suggests that this means the NED lacks accountability. NED responded that it "is answerable to a wide array of overseers in both the Executive and Legislative Branches" and suggests that the NED's non-governmental status is advantageous.
- Some critics charged that NED was redundant to USAID or other U.S. government democracy-promotion efforts. A number of U.S. government studies indicated that the role of NED was complementary rather than duplicative, and NED argues that its work "is of a vastly different character from... official institutions" in part because it has the advantage of non-bureaucratic flexibility.
- Some critics challenged the NED's mission on ideological grounds: some on the right wing have criticized NED for its labor affiliations and for supposedly promoting social democracy, while far left critics charged that the NED's democracy promotion efforts are "tantamount to interfering in the internal affairs of other countries in the service of U.S. foreign policy interests." NED has responded by pointing out that criticism of it has diminished since the end of the Cold War, and by referring to its funding of efforts to promote indigenous human rights groups, civil society organizations, and "long-term democratic development" efforts.
Reaction from foreign governments
In 2019, the government of the People's Republic of China sanctioned the NED in response to the passage by the U.S. Congress of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. The Chinese government asserted, without evidence, that the NED and CIA worked in tandem to covertly foment the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, and that NED acted as a U.S. intelligence front. NED was one of several U.S.-based NGOs sanctioned by the Chinese government; others included the Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, the National Democratic Institute, and the International Republican Institute. China also already tightly restricted the activities of foreign NGOs in China, particularly since 2016, and the NGOs sanctioned by China typically do not have offices on the mainland; as a result, the sanctions were regarded as mostly symbolic. NED grant recipients in Hong Kong included labor advocacy and human rights groups such as the Solidarity Center and Justice Centre Hong Kong. The Chinese government claimed that the sanctioned organizations were "anti-China" forces that "incite separatist activities for Hong Kong independence; a U.S. State Department official said that "false accusations of foreign interference" against U.S.-based NGOs were "intended to distract from the legitimate concerns of Hongkongers." Michael Pillsbury, a Hudson Institute foreign policy analyst and former Reagan administration official, stated that the Chinese accusation was "not totally false."
Other governments that have objected to NED activity include Venezuela and Egypt.
Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA)
In 2006, CIMA was founded as an initiative of the National Endowment for Democracy with encouragement from Congress and a grant from the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.CIMA works to improve the development of independent media worldwide while working to strengthen the support for such development.