Reveron, Derek

About the author: Derek Reveron earned his PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. While in graduate school, he worked as a project officer on many USAID and State Department democracy promotion programs, including Community Connections. He has taught political science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Indiana Northwest, and the US Naval Academy.

Promoting Democracy in the Post-Soviet Region

2002 0-7734-7148-0
This work examines the differences between the two main laws that fund democratization activities in the post-Soviet regions. Analysis of the program funded by the Freedom Support Act reveals the extent to which the State Department relies n private organizations to implement democratization programs, and suggests that democratization programs provide financial benefits primarily to American organizations. Then, with a combined issue network/statist argument, this study explains that an issue network, organized by the State Department to give the foreign policy community an active mission in the post-cold war environment, was the impetus behind the creation of programs like Community Connections. Because Community Connections have never faced financial or political scandal, and taps into an American priority of spreading democracy and capitalism, evaluation of CC was irrelevant to program expansion and continuation.