Robert A. Pastor

The role of electoral administration in democratic transitions: Implications for policy and research

Much has been written about the causes and consequences of democracy, but a crucial variable for explaining the success or the failure of democratic transitions has been omitted ‐ the administration of elections. In a poor country with low levels of education, the administration of an election is no simple matter, and accidents occur at the intersection between political suspicion and technical incapacity. Many elections fail because one party interprets a ‘technical irregularity’ as politically‐inspired by its opponents, whereas it might be due to administrative failures. This article analyses the increasing use of Elections Commissions and surveys the boundary line between technical and political challenges in conducting transitional elections. It proposes a research and policy agenda to disentangle the technical from the political and pursue each more effectively.

The Meaning of China's Village Elections

Direct elections for village leaders have been conducted in China since 1988, but they remain little known or casually dismissed by urban Chinese and the international community. Those who are aware of Chinas village elections have sharply divergent views as to their genuineness or effectiveness. Some are sceptical that the Chinese Communist Party would ever permit a competitive election that could threaten its grip on power. Others see the elections as a first stage in the building of democracy in China. In many ways, village elections are a kind of Rorschach test, an ambiguous drawing that is interpreted by people according to their predisposition towards China rather than the quality of the elections.

Condemned to repetition : the United States and Nicaragua

During the last three decades, Nicaragua posed three of the most difficult challenges faced by US foreign policy-makers in the third world: how to cope with a declining, repressive, but previously friendly dictator? how to relate to an anti-American revolutionary government? how to facilitate a democratic transition? The Nicaraguan challenge was to establish a democratic and autonomous government, with as much support and as little interference as possible from the great powers. This book demonstrates how an unproductive interaction led to both sides worst nightmares. Through the fall of Anastasio Somoza, the rise of the Sandinistas, and the contra war, the United States and Nicaragua seemed destined to repeat the mistakes made by the US and Cuba forty years before. The 1990 election in Nicaragua broke the pattern. Robert Pastor was a major US policymaker in the critical period leading up to and following the Sandinista Revolution of 1979. A decade later after writing the first edition of this book, he organized the International Mission led by Jimmy Carter that mediated the first free election in Nicaraguas history. From his unique vantage point, and utilizing a wealth of original material from classified government documents and from personal interviews with US and Nicaraguan leaders, Pastor shows how Nicaragua and the United States were prisoners of a tragic history and how they finally escaped. This revised and updated edition covers the events of the democratic transition, and it extracts the lessons to be learned from the past.

North America's Second Decade

In just ten years, NAFTA has created the worlds most formidable free trade area. But in the absence of true partnerships and multilateral institutions, movement toward further regional integration has slowed. The United States, Mexico, and Canada have many common interests; they need to pursue them in common ways

Exiting The Whirlpool : U.s. Foreign Policy Toward Latin America And The Caribbean

In this second edition of Exiting the Whirlpool, Pastor explores the continuities and the changes in U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America under Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. Whereas many foreign policy volumes neglect the role of Congress, Pastor devotes an entire chapter to explaining how it has shaped policy. Next, he looks at the recurring challenges that have often pulled the United States into the destructive whirlpool--how the United States has tried but often failed to manage succession crises, pre-empt or undermine revolutionaries, promote or manipulate elections, and encourage or neglect the regions economic development. Pastor offers a series of far-reaching policy recommendations for exiting the whirlpool and forging a hemispheric community of democracies within a free trade area. The first edition was widely acclaimed. The second is thoroughly updated, offering analyses and recommendations for addressing the contemporary democratic and security challenges facing the hemisphere.

Democracy in the Caribbean : political, economic, and social perspectives

Regional experts have long noted the surprising rate of democratization in the Caribbean. Ten out of the twelve English-speaking Caribbean island-states -- among a total of sixteen independent Caribbean nations -- have maintained relatively stable democracies since independence, a better rate of success than that of Latin America. In Democracy In The Caribbean sixteen Caribbean area specialists offer both global and regional perspectives in an effort to explain why this is so.

Foreign policy and regionalism in the Americas

This is a comparative analysis of foreign policy behaviour in the Americas which focuses on the emerging trend towards regionalism. Fundamental questions regarding the relationship between national foreign policy and hemispheric co-operation and integration are addressed.

Forward to the Beginning: Widening the Scope for Global Collective Action

From its establishment in 1945 until 1990, the United Nations was constrained from exercising its mandate to build peace and promote development. The institutions paralysis had multiple causes but probably the most significant was the Cold War. The United Nations reflected and was inhibited by the East-West divi sion of the world. Between 1945 and June 1990, 279 vetoes prevented the Security Council from taking action on behalf of a common purpose. These vetoes had a larger effect of inhib iting the global imagination as to what could be done to alle viate world suffering and foster peace. Even problems of Third World development, which should have evoked a unified response, became zero-sum contests in which either the United

Voting and ID Requirements: A Survey of Registered Voters in Three States

Since the 2000 election, one of the most contentious issues in election administration has been voter identification requirements. This article provides the results of a survey of registered voters in Indiana, Maryland, and Mississippi, which aimed to explore the extent to which ID requirements pose a problem (if any) to registered voters. The survey found that only 1.2% of registered voters in all three states lack a photo ID and in Indiana, which has the most stringent requirements, only 0.3% lacked an ID. The survey also found that more than two-thirds of respondents believe the U.S. electoral system would be trusted more if voters were required to show a photo ID. The article concludes with a proposal on how to construct an ID system that will assure ballot integrity while attracting new and more voters.

“A community of democracies in the Americas” – instilling substance into a wondrous phrase

The OAS Charter declared the hemispheres support for democracy, but Article 18 of the Charter, barring interference of any kind, effectively left the declaration toothless. With the spread of democracy and the end of the Cold War, the hemisphere moved in 1991 to build a network of democratic solidarity. The Inter‐American Democratic Charter, affirmed in Lima on September 11, 2001, represented a major step in the direction of building a “community of democracies in the Americas”. This paper describes the strengths and flaws in the Charter, beginning with its bloated and imprecise definition of democracy. It outlines the threats and challenges to democracy at three different levels of democratic development, and proposes a set of collective responses and a mechanism for judging the state of democracy in the Americas and deciding on the most effective collective response that could really instill substance in the phrase – if accepted by the states of the Americas.