The Role of Democracy Foundations: The Friedrich Naumann Stiftung of Germany
Abstract of a paper presented at the Asia-Pacific Democratic Cooperation Forum "Building a New Vision for Asia-Pacific Democracy and Human Rights," Taipei, Taiwan, 26-27 August 2002

1. The German “system” of political foundations affiliated to political parties (therefore also “political party foundations”) has long become an important point of reference in  international debates aimed at promoting democracy in countries emerging from authoritarian rule.
   
   
2. The German political foundations may be called an answer of the democratic Western German society to the dark past of National Socialism: they were formed and publicly funded with the clearly defined goal of infusing in the German citizenship the values and principles of democracy.  There exists a consensus that democratic civic education constitutes a pillar of democracy. A new challenge for the political foundations has been the collapse of socialism in the Eastern part of Germany and ensuing re-unification.
   
   In Germany political education (which is just another word for democratic civic education) is considered a public task – and also a life-long process. It is offered by a network of state and state-assisted providers.
   
   
3. Even if the state has played and continues to play a decisive role in the sense that it makes available a large part of the financial resources, two basic – and very fundamental – rules apply. They are :
   
   • non-involvement or non-interference of the state
   • pluralism.
   
   
   “Political education does not serve to represent the doings of governments and other state institutions. In contrast with the indoctrination practised by dictatorial states, which try to impose a uniform way of thinking on the people, political education in a democracy is aimed at self-determination, awareness of the own-interests and obligations, responsible conduct in state and society and free choice.” (Report of the Federal Government on the Status and Prospect of Political Education, Bonn 1991.)
   
   The principle of pluralism, on the other hand, is the democratic way to curb state omnipotence. Just as different political parties struggle for votes and power in a democratic system, democratic political education must always reflect the diversity of opinions, of political options and models.
   
   Germany’s political foundations – or Germany’s democracy foundations, to use but another term – go to show that these fundamental principles are not hollow words, but mirror political practice in that country over the past five decades.
   
4. Germany today has five political Foundations (or even six, if you add the newly formed Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation which is allied with the socialist PDS, the successor-party of East Germany’s ruling communists). Each of these foundations is close (or allied) with one party represented in the federal parliament. Four of the six foundations, that are all publicly funded, sympathize with political parties that are in opposition.
   
   
5. While in the years following World War II, the political Foundations concentrated on “re-educating” the West German masses, in the seventies they expanded their reach abroad, as Germany became an affluent state. Increasingly, the political foundations developed into an intermediary agency (or even an instrument) of the government’s development assistance. Today, roughly fifty percent of our funds are earmarked for activities outside the German borders. The Foundations are publicly funded, and there exists a political consensus, that development assistance to be effective should not be limited to technical and financial help to the needy countries, but should also entail programs aimed at promoting “good governance”. In a wider sense, promoting democracy is an element of this objective.
   
   
6. Like the other Foundations, the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung is guided by a set of clearly defined political principles.   A copy of these principles that guide all strategic considerations regarding the Foundation’s activities in Germany and abroad is attached to this paper.  In a nutshell, the main aim of the Foundation is the promotion of the principle of freedom, which lies at the very heart of the liberal ideology.
   
   
7. It is a special challenge to devise programs conducive  to the promotion of this objective in an international surrounding. The Foundation has engaged in a continuous process of strategizing as to find the most suitable methods of promoting our liberal principles.
   
   
8. The Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation in her international programs, engages in three sorts of activities. The basic activity is the traditional civic education, aimed a promoting in clearly defined target groups liberal values and principles. In addition, the Foundation promotes political dialogue, aimed at bringing together liberal individuals and groups (mainly political parties) to jointly devise (liberal) solutions to the many challenges our societies are confronted with. Lastly, the Foundation engages in political counselling: Experienced political experts help our political partners in devising political solutions to specific political questions.
   
   
9. The liberal Foundation’s activities in East Asia may be divided into country programs, administered by our offices in the different countries of the region and regional programs. According to the specific political (and social) conditions on the ground we engage in programs promoting local autonomy, human rights education, women rights, voter education, training of parliamentarians etc.  It is very much up to the country representatives to identify the programs and the partners.
   
   
10. One fundamental rule of all Foundation activities abroad is the bonding with a local partner. For practical, but also for very fundamental reasons of legitimacy of our political involvement we always cooperate closely with a local partner.
    
    
11. On a regional level in East Asia, the Foundation works in mainly three fields:
    
    
    • promotion of the cooperation of liberal-democratic political parties under the umbrella of the “Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats” (CALD), headquartered in Manila, of which Taiwan’s governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a founding member.
    • promotion of a regional human rights mechanism in ASEAN, an effort led by a Regional Working Group, also headquartered in Manila.
    • support of a regional network of free-market-think tanks, who – unlike the main stream of progressive activists – believe, that free trade and free market are not the cause of many problems in the so-called Third World, but the solution of many challenges of the impoverished countries.
      
      
12. In East Asia democracy promotion remains dominated by extra-regional, mainly Western  institutions. Considering the state of economic prosperity and democratic consolidation in some countries (namely South Korea and Taiwan). it is high time for a systematic Asian contribution in this important field.  Here, there are two main tasks: first, consolidating democracy in their own respective societies. According to recent surveys, the level of acceptance of basic democratic values in both the Taiwanese and the South Korean societies is far from satisfactory (see Chu, Yun-han, Diamond, Larry and Shin, Doh-chul: Halting Progress in Korea and Taiwan, in: Journal of Democracy, January 2001, pp. 122-136).  Secondly, reaching out to fellow Asian countries with the aim of promoting democracy could then follow.
    
    
13. From a Taiwanese angle, the China-problem is a very special challenge, as any political activity (with financial support from Taipei) will instantly be regarded as a PR-campaign aimed  at strengthening the role of Taiwan vis-a-vis the PRC.  Thus, for any cross-border activity emanating from Taiwan, to succeed, it should be made clear that no such political (or diplomatic) strings are attached.
    
    
14. Learning from the German experience, Asia’s young democracies interested in setting up their own democracy foundation(s), should start at home and create viable national institutions of spreading democratic values first. Thereby, they should consider the fundamental principles of non-interference of the state and partisan pluralism. Only in a second step, they should advance to international activities.
    
    
15. The Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation would be most happy to share her experience and expertise with any democratic organisation from Asia aspiring to promote both at home and abroad the values and the principles that bound us together.