Thomas Carothers
Carnegie Endowment
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Past articles by Thomas:
Defending Civic Space: Is the International Community Stuck?
As space for civil society continues to close, the international community must redouble its efforts to defend the right of civic activists to hold governments around the world accountable. → Read More
Making Better Use of Lessons From Abroad For American Democracy
Ideas, experiences, and lessons from other countries are not panaceas but, if properly researched, disseminated, and discussed, they can magnify the reform moment in the United States. → Read More
Can U.S. Democracy Policy Survive Trump?
Under Trump, U.S. democracy policy has reached its lowest ebb in forty years. If the United States continues this course for two more years, it will be stranded on the sidelines, or even on the wrong side, of the global democratic struggle. → Read More
The One Thing Modern Voters Hate Most
Public anger at corruption has become perhaps the most powerful driver of political change around the world. → Read More
Is the U.S. Hypocritical to Criticize Russian Election Meddling?
Despite a checkered past record, U.S. programs to promote democracy abroad should not be equated with systemic Russian attempts to interfere with other nations’ politics. → Read More
Democracy Promotion Under Trump: What Has Been Lost? What Remains?
U.S. democracy policy is under severe strain, but writing off the United States as a key supporter of global democracy is premature. → Read More
Bernie Sanders on Threats to Democracy
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) will discuss the rise of authoritarianism and emerging threats to democracy in the U.S. and around the world. → Read More
Don’t Stop Believing: Restoring Civic Norms and Faith in Institutions
The annual Carnegie Junior Fellows Conference will engage young policy professionals across the political spectrum on the erosion of civic norms and declining faith in political institutions. → Read More
Democracy Is Not Dying
The state of democracy around the world is very troubled, but it is not uniformly dire, especially outside the West. → Read More
Political Party Assistance: Mutual Learning Needed
Since political parties in both established and emerging democracies face similar challenges, Western party aid should avoid the donor-recipient paradigm and instead embody a productive spirit of mutuality. → Read More
Prospects for U.S. Democracy Promotion Under Trump
Trump may intend to stop U.S. democracy promotion, but inescapable ties between U.S. values and interests and strong views on the topic in Congress and elsewhere point to policy complications ahead. → Read More
Media Call: Europe After the U.S. Election
In the wake of one of the most acrimonious and divisive presidential campaigns in modern American history, Carnegie Europe hosted a media call with Thomas Carothers, Judy Dempsey, and Pierre Vimont to discuss the outcome of the U.S. election and its impact on Europe. Speakers addressed the implications of the result for the transatlantic relationship, European foreign policy, and the rise of… → Read More
Should We Focus More on Women’s Political Empowerment When Democracy Goes off the Rails?
Women’s political empowerment work can and should be part of the core agenda for responding to challenging democratic transitions. → Read More
Closing Space and Fragility
The troubling, even alarming trend of closing space for civil society around the world has a direct but not always recognized link to the large problem of state fragility. → Read More
Democracy Support Strategies: Leading with Women’s Political Empowerment
Political institutions, especially representative ones, will only meaningfully change when norms and economic realities relating to the role of women in society change as a result of more generalized women’s activism. → Read More
Is the United States Giving Up on Supporting Democracy Abroad?
In recent years, serious skepticism about democracy promotion has gripped Washington. The old U.S. habit of making do with authoritarian allies for the sake of stability or security is making itself felt once again. → Read More
Is it Time for the Aid Community to Explain Itself to Developing Countries?
Empowering international aid recipients with better information on the different aid organizations, their motivations, and their methods may help solve some of aid’s great challenges. → Read More
Navigating International Aid in Transitions: A Guide for Recipients
This guide aims to help recipients of transition assistance better understand how the Western aid system operates so that they may find ways to ensure that their vision is supported, rather than hindered, by assistance providers. → Read More
Accountability at the Cutting Edge
Accountability work has moved relatively quickly from a first generation of assumptions and approaches to an emerging second generation that reflects various advances in conception and execution. → Read More
The Long Road for Rising Democracies and Democracy Support
Democracy support from rising democracies has moved forward, but not as quickly or decisively as some Western democracy supporters had initially hoped. → Read More