The contested origins of US democracy promotion: the national endowment for democracy and its congressional critics
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The contested origins of US democracy promotion: the national endowment for democracy and its congressional critics Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard1 Accepted: 23 September 2020 © Springer Nature Limited 2020
Abstract In 1983, a compromise between the Reagan administration, members of Congress and private groups led to the establishment of the bipartisan democracy promotion organization: the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Tracing congressional efforts to prevent the formation of the NED, this article offers the first comprehensive, archival-based study of the NED’s critics and their arguments and motivations. I find that opposition to the NED consisted of an unlikely and ideologically diverse alliance between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, who took issue with its organizational structure and strategic objectives. Although Congress eventually established the NED with minor concessions to its critics, its origin was considerably more contested than previously acknowledged. The case of the NED also demonstrates the substantial influence of domestic politics and individual members of Congress on US foreign policymaking. Keywords Democracy promotion · National endowment for democracy · Ronald reagan · Domestic politics · Congress · Cold war
Introduction The establishment of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in 1983 represented a turning point in the US’ approach to democracy promotion. A semi-private, government-funded foundation tasked with distributing grants to democratic forces abroad, the NED was the result of a compromise between the Reagan administration and the wider foreign policy elite such as members of Congress and private organizations. The administration had favored a government-controlled organization, labeled Project Democracy, which largely limited democracy promotion to the ideological * Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard [email protected] 1
Danish Institute for International Studies, Gl. Kalkbrænderi Vej 51A, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark Vol.:(0123456789)
R. S. Søndergaard
confrontation with communism and the advancement of US security interests. Congress, however, rejected Project Democracy, giving momentum to another initiative known as the Democracy Program. The brainchild of the private group the American Political Foundation (APF), the Democracy Program proposed a private organization aimed at promoting democratic institutions in communist regimes as well as non-communist dictatorships. This proposal won widespread support from leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties, labor unions, the business sector as well as the administration and resulted in the establishment of the NED. Nevertheless, the NED faced considerable opposition from individual members of Congress, who questioned its strategic objective and organizational structure. Its most outspoken critics consisted of an unlikely alliance of conservative Republicans committed to anti-communism abroad and fiscal conservatism and small government at home and liberal Democrats concerned with US supp
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