Westminster Foundation for Democracy

The Westminster Foundation for Democracy is a state funded organisation working to promote democracy overseas.

The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) was established in March 1992 to provide assistance in building and strengthening pluralist democratic institutions overseas.

It receives a grant-in-aid from the Government which is currently around £4 million. It accounts to Parliament for the resources through the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. It also undertakes selected extra-budgetary technical assistance projects, and seeks contributions from the private sector and other funding organisations. WFD is independent of the Government in setting its priorities and its choice of projects.

The three main UK political parties are each represented on the Board of Governors, and are appointed by the Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs after consulting the parties. There is also a representative from the smaller political parties, and non-party figures drawn from business, the trade unions, the academic world and the non-governmental sector.

(all from [1])

Its priority areas are Central and Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent (CIS) and Anglophone Africa.

Patrons

The Speaker of the House of Commons

• Rt Hon Tony Blair MP
• Rt Hon Ian Duncan Smith MP
• Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP
• David Trimble MP
• Ieuan Wyn Jones MP AM
• John Hume MP MEP
• Alex Salmond MSP
• Dr Ian Paisley MP MEP

"Promoting democracy"

The Westminster Foundation for Democracy is similar in nature to the [National Endowment for Democracy]. William Robinson (1996) suggests that such organizations are involved in "the promotion of polyarchy as a transnational project reflecting globalization" (Robinson, 1996, p. 363)

"This process is taking place through the development at two distinct levels of transnational mechanisms for promoting and instutionalizing a polyarchic global political system. The first level is that of other Northern countries. These countries have set up their own government-linked "democracy promotion" agencies and launched programs to intervene in the political systems and civil socities of the Third World, in coordination with US programs. By the early 1990s: the British government had established a quasi-private foundation similar to the [NED], the Westminster Foundation; the Canadian government had established a similar [International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development]; Sweden, Japan, and France were expected to develop their own foundations; and several German foundations which have been active in limited "political aid" programs overseas since the 1970s, began to expand these programs and to coordinate them with the [NED]." (Robinson, 1996, p. 364)

Governors

• Chairman: Michael Gapes MP
• Vice-Chair: Nik Gowing
• Vice-Chair: Michael Moore MP
• Vice-Chair: Michael Trend MP

Governors:

• Georgina Ashworth
• Frances D'Souza
• Nicola Duckworth
• Mary Kaldor
• Elfyn Llwyd MP
• Patrick Smith
• Michael Aaronson
• Richard Spring MP
• Caroline Spelman MP
• Gisela Stuart MP

External links

• William Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention and Hegemony, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. For a quick summary
• Interview with William Robinson by Jonah Gindin, The Battle for Global Civil Society, June 13, 2005.