The National Democratic Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government.

Clark Plexico, a former three-term state senator from Henderson County during the 1990s, serves as NDI country director in Uzbekistan, where he works with government leaders and continues to focus on emerging leaders. During his recent trip to the U.S., Plexico brought along nine political leaders from Uzbekistan to visit Raleigh and Washington, D.C.

“If you talk to someone who has never had that history of having a democracy or federal system,” Plexico said, “the only way you can really understand it is to see it. So I said, ‘To get to Washington, we have to go to North Carolina.' ” Plexico's group met with several state leaders — some of whom were former colleagues in the '90s — and discussed how things work at the state level. Plexico said the hope is that regional legislatures may be formed in Uzbekistan that would bring elected leaders there “closer to the people.”