The Foreign Service Journal, January 2009

J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 33 the Democratic Party) and the In- ternational Republican Institute (affiliated with the Republican Party), as well as the business-ori- ented Center for International Pri- vate Enterprise and the labor- focused Free Trade Union Institute. Numerous nongovernmental organ- izations, including some recipients of U.S. funding, stepped up their own democracy promotion efforts, including the International Foundation for Election Sys- tems, financier George Soros’ Open Society Institute and the human rights watchdog Freedom House, whose an- nual report on freedom in the world is a widely watched barometer of global democratic reforms. Some experts say a true bipartisan consensus on democracy promotion did not emerge until a few years after the creation of NED, when the Reagan administra- tion was tested by the 1986 “people power” revolution in the Philippines. The administra- tion played a pivotal role in the ouster of dictator Ferdinand Mar- cos, a staunch Cold War ally widely seen to have rigged presidential elections. In the face of growing public agitation over his rule, the U.S. withdrew support for Marcos and facilitated his departure from the country. Democracy spread at breath- taking speed over the next several years with the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, followed by the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Scores of NGOs based in democratic states, attracted by the yearn- ing of former Warsaw Pact states to join the European Union, NATO and other Western and trans-Atlantic bod- ies, assisted in implementing sweeping political and eco- nomic reforms in the newly liberated quarters of the continent. F O C U S Modern-day democratization efforts can be traced to 1983, when President Ronald Reagan created the National Endowment for Democracy.