Democratic Politics and Policy Workshop, 1995-96

The Workshop on Democratic Politics and Policy grew out of the annual policy workshop held at our Democracy & Diversity Summer Graduate Institute in Cracow, and was developed in response to a growing interest in the applied social sciences among scholars from the region. Since policy studies are still rarely a part of the curriculum at universities in East and Central Europe and the Newly Independent States, the workshop seminars were designed to discuss the ways in which public policy can become an instrument of democracy. Specifically, the seminars were to acquaint participants with different areas of public policy analysis.The weekly meetings of the 1995-96 Workshop focused on presentations by experts examining various areas of public and social policy, e.g., media, health care, labor, welfare, environment. The experts included Jack Matlock, the former U.S. Ambassador to the then Soviet Union, and Pulitzer Prize winner Tina Rosenberg. The discussions which followed related the respective topics to the challenging overall situation of transitional societies in East and Central Europe. The 1995-96 Workshop paid special attention to issues which are of particular urgency and interest for the region, such as transitional justice, dual citizenship, and the treatment of minorities.This new initiative represents our first attempt to involve the collaborators s in the region in a multilateral discussion through the Internet. At the same time, the New York-based Workshop has an "actual" and a "virtual" site. Each week 15-20 participants meet at the "actual" site, at the Graduate Faculty in New York. Among the participants of the New York meetings this year, in addition to GF faculty and students, were ECEP's Democracy Fellows - junior faculty from Polish, Bulgarian, Slovak, Hungarian, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian universities, studying at the Graduate Faculty. The transcripts of the weekly presentations and discussions were sent via E-mail to the respective study groups in the region, which then responded with their own questions and contributions. Other interested academics could also participate in the workshop via ECEP's Homepage. The Workshop, which was launched in November 1995, consists of the following sessions:

Overview

• Nov. 21 "Policy as Craft and Theory", presented by Elaine Zimmerman, the Executive Director of the Commission on Children for the State of Connecticut, a policy practitioner on both the state and national level.
• Dec. 5, Media Policy, presented by Monroe Price, a Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School, whose interest is centered around the media issues specific to the region.
• Dec. 12, Economic Policy, presented by Graduate Faculty's Dorothy Hirshon Professor of Economics David Gordon.
• Dec. 19, Health Policy, run by Distinguished Scholar at the Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, William Glaser, who has had extensive policy experience in the field within the region, including as an advisor to the Russian Duma.
• Jan. 30, Constructing U.S. policy vis-a-vis Russia, presented by Jack F. Matlock, the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Professor in the Practice of International Diplomacy at Columbia University, and former U.S. Ambassador to the Former Soviet Union.
• Feb. 6, Models of Dual Citizenship, presented by Political Scientist and ECEP Associate Yuri Shevchuk.
• Feb. 13, "Dealing with the Crimes of Dictatorship", presented by Tina Rosenberg, a Senior Fellow of the World Policy Institute, who was recently awarded the National Book Award for Non-Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for her work The Haunted Lands: Facing Europe's Ghosts After Communism.
• Feb. 20, Labor Policy, presented by David Howell, Professor and Chair of the Urban Policy and Analysis Department of the Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy.
• Feb. 27, Foreign Policy, presented by Sherle Schwenninger, the Director of the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research.
• Mar. 5, Marginalized Populations, co-presented by Ari Zolberg, the University in Exile Professor of Political Science at the Graduate Faculty and U.N. policy advisor, and the Spring 1996 Visiting Professor in Democracy at the New School, Galina Starovoitova. Professor Starovoitova is also a current member of the Russian Duma, is a former advisor to Russian President Boris Yeltsin on minority issues, and is currently a declared candidate for the Russian Presidency.
• Mar. 12, "A Review of U.S. Environmental Policy," presented by George Hamilton, the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Communities, Montpelier, Vermont.

These presentations by policy experts will be augmented by individual presentations of the Democracy Fellows and other Fellows of the East and Central Europe Program. The Fellows will present their research and will teach other participants about issues specific to their home countries, synthesizing the different viewpoints they have learned while at the New School.

Policy Questions in the Region

• April 2, "Armenian Women in the Period of Transition," presented by Mariam Ohanian, Yerevan State University, Armenia.
• April 9, "Judicial Review of Legislation in Lithuania," presented by Darius Aidukas, University of Vilnius, Vilnius, and "Constitutional Establishment of Power Relations in the Law-making Process in East and Central Euorpe," presented by Mariela Vargova, Sofia University and New Bulgarian University, Sofia.
• April 16, "Public Policy in Slovakia," presented by Dionyz Hochel, Trnava University, Bratislava, Ladislaw Ollos, CEU, Budapest, and "The Challenge of AIDS for Modern Public Policy Institutions," presented by Magda Iwanska, University of Warsaw, Warsaw.
• April 23, "Ukrainian Public Service in the Mirror of Public Opinion," presented by Pavel Fedorchenko, Kiev-Mohyla Academy, Kiev, and "A Constitutional Dilemma in Transitions to Democracy: What Role for Welfare Rights: A Hungarian Perpective," presented by Gabor Juhasz, ELTE, Budapest.
• April 30, "Freedom of Speech Versus Federal Regulation of Advertising," presented by Malgorzata Gajda, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, and "Presidential Elections and Television," presented by Kinga Czuczor, ELTE, Budapest.

A special feature of this Workshop is that the presentations and discussions are shared via E-Mail with interested scholars in a total of fifteen institutes of higher education in eleven countries - Armenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. The contents of the discussions of the respective study groups in each of these countries will be shared with other groups, including, of course, the New York participants and presenters. The electronic logistics of the Workshop (including the preparation of the transcripts) is coordinated by Belinda Cooper, a Senior Fellow of the World Policy Institute. Our Pew and Mellon Fellows serve as invaluable liaisons with the study groups in their home countries.

Those interested in participating in the Democracy and Public Policy Workshop should contact us via e-mail at WEERAMUN@NEWSCHOOL.EDU or COOPERB@NEWSCHOOL.EDU.

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