Publisher's Synopsis
An examination of the differences between the two main US laws that fund democratization activities in the post-Soviet regions. Analysis of the programme funded by the Freedom Support Act reveals the extent to which the State Department relies on private organizations to implement democratization programmes, and suggests that democratization programmes 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 programmes like Community Connections. Because Community Connections has never faced financial or political scandal, and taps into an American priority of spreading democracy and capitalism, evaluation of CC was irrelevant to programme expansion and continuation.