FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 06/23/05
CONTACT: Cara Santos Pianesi, 202/939-2211, csantos@CarnegieEndowment.org

 
The Carnegie Endowment has launched a comprehensive, easy-to-navigate online resource with baseline data and information about Arab political systems and the reforms being implemented in various countries. Injecting some objectivity in the highly politicized debate about political reform in Arab countries, these country studies provide factual, up-to-date information on state institutions, human rights, political forces, election results, constitutional revision, corruption, and ratification of international conventions—with links to official documents and websites.

The resource was developed jointly with FRIDE (Fundación para Relaciones Internacionales y el Dialógo Exterior) in Madrid. Access it at www.carnegieendowment.org/arabpoliticalsystems.

The database currently covers Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia, with more country studies already being prepared. All major countries will be covered by the end of 2005. Carnegie and FRIDE researchers will regularly update entries as reforms take place or come under discussion.

"With the world’s attention focused as never before on political reform and democratization in Arab countries, the need for accurate, factual information on the state of political reforms is correspondingly high. This new resource will be an asset to anyone who follows the status of political development in this critical region," said Thomas Carothers, director of Carnegie’s Democracy and Rule of Law Project.

The Carnegie Endowment’s Democracy and Rule of Law Project offers analysis and practical expertise on whether and how political reform could occur in the Arab world and what the United States and other external actors can do to encourage such change. The resource is the latest element of Carnegie’s extensive set of online publications. The project publishes the e-monthly Arab Reform Bulletin (in English and Arabic), as well as books, policy briefs, policy outlooks, and Carnegie papers on reform issues.

Subscribe to the Arab Reform Bulletin at www.CarnegieEndowment.org/arabreform.

Access new books and papers at www.CarnegieEndowment.org/democracy.

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