Anthropology News • November 2005 VIEWS ON POLICY

ENGAGING ETHNOGRAPHY IN EVALUATING DEMOCRACY PROMOTION

In the past two decades the business of developing democracy promotion strategies, evaluating current practices and monitoring their impact has grown exponentially. While universalist standards modeled after accounting and audit models have been devel- IN FOCUS oped to track the presence or absence of formal components of Western democracy, ways of assessing the equally important, albeit more fluid and culturally-contingent, criteria associated with democratic processes and transitions, such as diplomacy, civic participation and social justice, are often ignored or not understood. Here and during the annual meeting anthropologists discuss how ethnography can contribute to understanding these dynamics. The Ethnography of Democracy Promotion An Opportunity and a Posner to close reading, and found Challenge them wanting. Geertz judged the authors’ views “sociologically thin and lacking psychological depth,” KEITH BROWN and recommended to readers the BROWN U virtues of “monographic attention to critical examples,” exemplified by a ight now, ethnogra- quartet of recent works by anthropol- phers of democracy pro- ogists. Thirty-two years after trans- motion are in demand. forming an Oxford philosopher’s R After 15 years investing musings on winks, blinks and twitch- in democracy in Eastern Europe, es into a transdisciplinary epistemo- Eurasia and the Balkans, and as logical revolution, Clifford Geertz is international attention moves still stumping for thick description. toward the Middle East, a range of It is a long journey from sheep- interested US actors, including gov- stealing in early 20th-century ernment agencies, NGOs and pri- Morocco (Geertz’s example) to radia- vate foundations, are seeking les- tion poisoning in post-Soviet sons learned. Though still con- Ukraine (Adriana Petryna) or defor- cerned primarily with cost-effec- estation in Indonesia (Anna Tsing). tiveness, many insiders recognize All four authors Geertz cites have the shortcomings of audit-based pulled off a remarkable achievement: Participants (from left) Paul Stubbs (Croatia), Ana Mukoska (Macedonia), Rea evaluations which fail to capture they have successfully “scaled-up.” Maglajlic (BiH), Radmila Dudic (Serbia) and Despoina Syrri (Greece) brainstorm on-the-ground reality, and are will- Drawing on a range of sources, and to identify key stakeholders and constituencies in international democracy pro- ing and eager to listen to, and build using a creative mixture of writing motion efforts in June 2005. Photo courtesy of Keith Brown future policy around, new perspec- styles not only to tackle transnation- tives. An active audience exists, al, global issues in a manner that sat- and lucky among us may continue a democratic citizenry cannot func- therefore, for anthropologically- isfies the master of ethnographic to prosper for a while; but the over- tion effectively. informed analysis of the complex, pointillism, but also to convince all picture will be one of involution, Among contemporary anthropol- transnational domain of US demo- major university presses that closely- diminishing returns and—ultimate- ogists who have taken up Nader’s cracy promotion overseas. textured scholarship on human dis- ly—darkness. challenge are Hugh Gusterson and This situation creates an opportu- asters, highlighting social and cultur- Catherine Lutz: significantly both nity—and perhaps even an obliga- al contexts, demands publication. Studying Up (and Through) conduct research in domains seem- tion—for anthropologists to do Back in 1972, Laura Nader already ingly fenced off by issues of security some reflection of their own. My VIEWS ON POLICY called into question the salience of clearance and national security own experience over the past four participant-observation, suggesting (Gusterson on nuclear research, Lutz years leading a research project on on the US military-industrial com- Is Geertz suggesting these anthro- (after Sol Tax) that its fetishization democracy promotion in the for- was driving anthropologists to focus plex) and yet have managed to navi- pologists represent a magic formu- gate access to rich data, simultane- mer Yugoslavia has brought me on small-scale societies, and therefore la? I think not: I interpret his ously advocating the need for more back to some of the core dilemmas blocking work on the most relevant review’s title as indexing also the public anthropology. Their work is generated in dealing with the chal- problems of the world. In “Up the lenges of conducting fieldwork and fact that Diamond, in particular, critical without being adversarial, Anthropologist,” published in Dell contributing to policymaking in dramatically outsells all four authors collaborative without being co- Hymes’ still-timely Rethinking Anthro- the contemporary world. Here I he cites. As the scope of the ques- opted, and smart without being inac- pology, she laid out the methodologi- outline the enduring importance of tions under scrutiny widens, thick cessible, thereby dissolving some of cal challenge and moral imperative of studying thick and studying up, and description not only gets harder to the dichotomies anthropologists conclude that to do both effectively do, but also harder for audiences to ethnography in the US, showcasing have tended, in recent years, to we need to find ways to study with. follow. If we confine ourselves to the work of students on such organi- enshrine. Similar qualities are exhib- the solo-authored, fieldwork-cen- zations as the Bay Area Pollution ited in pioneering work on Western Studying Thick (and Deep) tered mode of knowledge-produc- Control Agency and the California aid to Eastern Europe by, among oth- In his article “Very Bad News” in the tion, we risk comparison with those Insurance Commission. Her central ers, Janine Wedel and Steven March 24 issue of the New York Review who think the answer to the world’s point was political without being par- Sampson. In a recent article in of Books, Clifford Geertz subjected diminishing supply of oil and coal is tisan: without such understanding of International Studies Perspectives, recent books on human catastrophe to prospect wider, drill deeper and how complex society works, led by Wedel sums up her methodology as by Jared Diamond and Richard pump harder. The brilliant, intuitive anthropologists as “citizen-scholars,” “studying through … tracking policy

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discourses, prescriptions and pro- grams and then linking them to Democracy Promotion and Anthropology those affected by the policies.” Q & A with Thomas Carothers Thomas Carothers, senior associate and director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Studying With Endowment for International Peace, is widely recognized as a leading international authority on democracy pro- Wedel acknowledges that this is a motion, or the promoting of the development of democratic institutions transnationally through means of for- messy business. With that judg- eign assistance. At this year’s AAA Annual Meeting, Carothers will headline a panel discussion, “Evaluating US ment, I wholeheartedly agree—hav- Democracy Promotion: A Case for Engaged Ethnography?” on Friday, December 2. This past September, ing been, to the audit-minded Carothers spoke with AAA Director of External, International and Government Relations Paul Nuti about the intersection of anthropology and democracy promotion. observer, messing around in my research into international democ- Paul Nuti: The existence or emergence of democratic political culture in transitional contexts lies at the heart of the discus- racy promotion in the former Yugo- sion on evaluating the impact of democracy assistance strategies. What value would a capacity to measure political culture slavia since the Dayton peace ac- add to democracy promotion work? cords of 1995. I set out with the Thomas Carothers: The concept of political culture has long presented problems for democracy promoters. On the one hand, they know generic idea of presenting to the that political culture, however it might be defined, has an important bearing on their work. On the other hand, they find it hard to take “policy” audience my anthropolog- on board because it resists clear definition and is sometimes used as a way of arguing that certain societies are ill-suited for democracy, ical perspectives on politics, culture which goes against the universalistic impulses of most democracy promoters. I am wary of the idea of developing a method for measur- and identity in the Balkans. I imag- ing political culture beyond the sorts of attitudinal assessments that are currently employed. Aid practitioners are under such pressure to find and use quantitative methods of measuring their work that they might well end up using such an instrument in mechanistic, unhelp- ined myself, in heroic individual ful ways. terms, championing the people of PN: As a non-anthropologist democracy expert, do you have a general sense of how the discipline of anthropology might the region: I would confound the inform the evaluation of democracy assistance? easy certainties of journalists, diplo- TC: Evaluations of democracy assistance too often are rather superficial exercises that attempt to measure quantifiable, short-term changes mats and aid workers, and open in specific institutions without adequately exploring a wider range of questions about the impact of the aid intervention. How was the aid their eyes to the reality that “anti- intervention perceived and experienced locally? What were the indirect effects of the intervention on people and organizations beyond the democratic” phenomena in the re- immediate target institution? What sorts of long-term changes were produced? Evaluators measuring for example how many public hear- gion—slow progress, incomplete ings a parliament held and how many people attended the hearings as a result of a program to increase parliamentary contact with citizens transition or nationalist resurgence are likely not tackling a whole set of broader, deeper questions that are highly germane to understanding how the aid intervention affect- ed the society in question. With their commitment to in-depth, relational, long-term understanding of other societies, anthropologists could —tell us more about Western world- add highly valuable perspectives to evaluations of democracy aid. views than Balkan backwardness. PN: In recent months, some in the social science community have noted that the current approach to democracy building in Iraq In the course of study—in inter- and Afghanistan would benefit from anthropological research of the local context. What do you think? views with international and local TC: When democracy promoters try to help post-conflict societies rebuild their political systems, questions about who the main power employees of major NGOs, at work- actors are, what their interests are, and how they are dealing with each other in the new environment are crucial. But assessing the ter- shops on a variety of linked topics, rain of power actors and relationships in a society coming out of years of fundamental conflict is a daunting task, as evidenced by the pro- and conversations with friends and found difficulties of the ongoing processes of political reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq. If anthropological research could help elu- colleagues in the region—I discov- cidate these power issues in ways that would be timely and accessible to the practitioners on the ground it would be welcome, though ered (of course) the limits of my some policymakers at higher levels remain resistant to what they perceive as overly pessimistic accounts by outside experts. own preconceptions—and my own ethnographic authority. Interna- UN, Organization for Security and details how she shared ethnograph- yields, in Blight and lang’s view, tional organizations in the region Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and ic methods with public health new understandings of past mis- are often staffed by PhDs who know various USAID subcontractors, as activists in Chile in Marketing takes, often the product of faulty full well that a model of “ancient well as program officers at the Mott Democracy (2001), and Kay Warren’s assumptions and a failure of empa- hatreds” has as much to do with Foundation and the Rockefeller current SSRC-supported project, thy, with the promise of educating serious analysis as “intelligent Brothers Fund, who have funded our examining Japanese foreign aid in future leaders. design.” Field officers can boast up project. What I have encountered in close dialogue with its planners and In democracy promotion in the to ten years of participant-observa- my interactions with these informed implementers. Beyond disciplinary former Yugoslavia, obviously, the tion in the region, moving between and committed professionals is boundaries, I also take inspiration personalities are less well-known, assignments in Bosnia, Albania, shared interest in converting individ- from Watson Institute colleagues the events less fraught and distant Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia: they ual experience into effective institu- James Blight and janet lang, pio- in time, and the documentary take it as obvious to any but the tional learning, and frustration that neers of what they call “critical oral record less authoritative. It is most simple-minded that the “suc- the deadline-driven, grant-seeking history.” As outlined briefly in the refreshing, though, to find oneself cess stories” they generate are the world of democracy promotion preface to their book The Fog of War scaling-down a methodology, ra- products of particular relationships offers no space for the analysis and (2005)—itself a collaboration with ther than scaling-up. Studying with with funding organizations, not reflection that would make that pos- Robert McNamara, a leading policy- makes it feasible to study thick and faithful reflections of complex reali- sible. This is also the case for a gener- maker during the Viet Nam war as study through. It provides not only ty. Local scholars see little purpose ation of talented, young, scholarly- secretary of defense between 1961 a concrete way to carry out the cen- in academic “West-bashing,” which minded professionals from the and 1968, and Errol Morris, who tral ethnographic project of com- they see as doing little except pro- region, many of whom are tired of directed the 2003 documentary The plex, nuanced story-telling, but viding some kind of credibility to doing what Paul Nuti has acutely Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the also, by bringing the stakeholders all-too-real anti-democratic political called the “democracy dance” to Life of Robert S McNamara—this ap- in that story into the telling, to forces in their countries. secure their livelihood, when they proach seeks to capture and distil increase the prospects of its being ANI What, then, to do, when the story could be conducting illuminating, the special knowledge of partici- heard and acted upon. you set out to tell enlightens none of critical “insider” research into the pants in historical events by bring- Keith Brown is editor of the forthcoming those in it? My response is to seek experience of “being democratized.” ing together in dialogue scholars, Transacting Transition: The Micropoli- common ground in the telling of the So now I am studying with. In decision-makers and documents, tics of Democracy Promotion in the story with a range of democracy pro- addition to the anthropologists through painstakingly prepared and Former Yugoslavia. Further information motion practitioners in the Balkans: already mentioned, I seek to emu- carefully structured conferences. can be found at www.watsoninstitute. professionals who worked for the late the work of Julia Paley, who The triangulation of perspectives org/muabet

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