Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

In an eloquent speech, Bert Koenders, the Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation set the tone of the debate on 13 September 2007 at a conference organised by the Society for International Development in collaboration with NIMD, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IDEA, Socires and NCDO. This conference, which concluded a series of lectures and discussions that started in October 2006, was attended by some 170 participants.

In his speech, the Minister sketched the history of democratic developments in the Netherlands, stressing on the one hand the long time it has taken to come to the current system and on the other hand the fact that this system continues to be debated and reformed.

On the relation between democracy and development, Mr Koenders acknowledged that economic growth also occurs in countries led by autocrats. However, he observed that seemingly successful models cannot not just be copied to other countries and continents. By stating that “China’s model does not work in Africa or the Middle East; perhaps it doesn’t even work in China” he expressed scepticism about the long-term impact of the Chinese economic boom.


Deepening democracy

The Minister made clear that his special areas of interest include post-conflict countries and the role of women. People all over the world express a desire for democratic governance. He emphasised the need to go beyond the technocratic good governance debate: a more political conception is required to address governance problems such as corruption, insufficient rule of law. “We have to shed more light on democratic deficits”, Mr Koenders observed. “This means making greater efforts to deepen democracy – not only at embassies but also together with Dutch and international NGOs”.


Other speakers

Various other speakers highlighted elements of the democracy and development debate. Professor William Easterly made a number of provocative statements. In listing numerous factors that have not managed to produce development (factors like investments, education, health and structural adjustment) he concluded that we just don’t have the knowledge required to foster development. On the other hand, we do know is that a very positive correlation exists between democracy and development. However, in Mr Easterly’s view this correlation does not say anything about the causal factors and about the way to influence them.

The Secretary General of International IDEA, Mr Vidar Helgesen, remarked that “a knowledge-based approach in democracy assistance is better than an ideology-based approach”. He also warned against too much projectification of democracy assistance.

Former Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs and NIMD president Dr Ben Bot, described the diversity in democratic systems. He linked these systems to the concept of contrat social as it had been introduced by the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The afternoon sessions saw a series of contributions by various speakers and numerous questions and interventions by the audience. The conference was concluded by the former Swedish Deputy Prime Minister, Ms Lena Hjelm-Wallén, who stated that the European Union should do a lot more in the area of democracy assistance.