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Topic Discussion I
Politics of Hard Choices
Political Transition and Economic Restructuring
Room 5
(2 of 22 pages)
Chair: …democracy promotion, what do I co-ordinate in that job. I co-ordinate
really the two instruments of our democracy promotion effort that is our diplomacy both bilateral and multilateral
as well as our large assistance, global assistance programs. We have requested from U.S. Congress 700 million dollars
for the next fiscal year to promote democracy in the world. I work with many of my colleagues in the State Department,
AID and other programmatic agencies to make sure that our problems that are diplomacy are working together well.
Thank you all for coming to this panel. As you know the topic is really the theme of the Conference overall. The
topic is "The Politics of Hard Choices, Political Transitions and Economic Restructuring". We have two
very distinguished panels who will make initial presentations to help us frame the discussion. Before I introduce
them let me lay out several ground rules for the discussion.
First we want to make the discussion very egalitarian and informal. Now is the chance for all of us to engage in
a lively debate about this topic that we are all very interested in. If any of you want to speak after the two
initial presentations please raise your hand. I will keep a list of those wishing to speak and I will only ask
you to keep your comments as brief as possible.
Second, if you could please identify yourself before the first time you speak that would be very helpful.
Finally, if there are any members of the media in the room, I would like to ask you that although you may take
notes about this conversation, we would ask you that if you are interested in making any direct quotations or attributions
that you please before you do so, ask the person who made those remarks. Thank you very much for your co-operation.
So, as I said this is really the bid theme of the conference, how to manage simultaneously democratic reforms as
well as economic restructuring. It is something that all countries are facing and in the donor community we are
all very interested in supporting you through that twin transition.
Of course the older marked democracies have now many centuries to grapple with this very difficult dilemma. For
example, I believe it is no coincidence historians would argue that the concept of democratic politics and market
economics at least the modern version of them has been around for at least several centuries. It is no coincidence
perhaps that in 1976 marked not only the date of the American Revolution, the symbolic birth of modern democracy
as well as the Publication date of Adam Smith's famous book "The Wealth of Nations", where he lays out
the philosophy of a market economy.
As our older democracies continue to grapple with that, we look for inspiration and lessons from the new democracies.
As I said, we are lucky to have two very distinguished panelists. On my right is Dr. Julio Alaga. He is the Dean
of the School of Political Science from the University of our Lady of La-Paz. On my left is the Mohammed Soofan
who is it Minister of Planning and Development here in Yemen. Let me again thank the incredible hospitality and
generosity and support of your government in hosting this very very seminal conference.
We choose these two because we have on the one hand a theoretician and on the other hand a practitioner. So let
me start first with the theoretician. Each will speak for approximately ten minutes and Dr. Alaga will outline
some of the broader issues of this dilemma and then the Honorable Minister will discuss Yemen's grappling over
the last decade with this particular dilemma. So without further ado, Dr. Alaga.
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