Providing effective support to “deep democracy”: how can it realistically be done?

Abstract

Martin Dahinden’s article on “Democracy Promotion at the local level: Experiences, Perspectives and Policy of Swiss International Cooperation” comes at the right time. Democracy promotion is not a new topic on the agenda of the international (European) community. Since the democratisation wave of the early 1990s that swept across the developing world, a wide range of donor-supported programmes, mobilising substantial funds, have sought to build institutions and nurture democratic values in hu...