Gen. Wesley Clark and Gov. Larry Hogan: Rebuilding Civility in US Politics

Gen. Wesley Clark is founder and CEO of Renew America Together. Clark retired as a four star general after 38 years in the United States Army, having served in his last assignments as Commander of US Southern Command and then as Commander of US European Command/ Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. He graduated first in his class at West Point and completed degrees in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University (B.A. and M.A.) as a Rhodes Scholar. He also worked with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke in the Dayton Peace Process, where he helped write and negotiate significant portions of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement. His final NATO assignment was as Supreme Allied Commander Europe

His awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Defense Distinguished Service Medal (five awards), Silver star, bronze star, purple heart, honorary knighthoods from the British and Dutch governments, and numerous other awards from other governments, including award of Commander of the Legion of Honor (France). He has also been awarded the Department of State Distinguished Service Award and numerous honorary doctorates and civilian honors.

Governor Lawrence J. Hogan, Jr. was sworn in as the 62nd governor of the State of Maryland on January 21, 2015. In 2018, he was overwhelmingly re-elected to a second four-year term, receiving the most votes of any Maryland gubernatorial candidate and becoming only the second Republican governor to be re-elected in the 242-year history of the state.

In his first inaugural address, Governor Hogan reminded citizens of Maryland’s history as a state of middle temperament and pledged to advance the best ideas, regardless of which side of the political aisle they come from. He is recognized nationally as a strong, independent leader who consistently delivers real results and achieves common sense, bipartisan solutions. 

After being elected by his fellow governors, Governor Hogan recently completed a successful term as chairman of the National Governors Association, and he consistently maintains one of the highest job approval ratings in the country.

This virtual presentation, moderated by special guest KOAA news anchor Rob Quirk, is in cooperation with WorldDenver and the Colorado Springs World Affairs Council and is free to all Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council members.

To register, members will receive an email with link to click on and you will be asked enter to code “WACMEMBER” and it will be self-explanatory from there.

Jovan Jovanovic: DEMOCRACY VS GEOPOLITICS: WESTERN (UN)INTENTIONAL SUPPORT FOR AUTOCRACY

Jovan has been a pro-democracy activist since early 1990s, when he fought the autocratic regime of Slobodan Milosevic. After the regime change in 2000, he has participated in a democratic transformation of Serbia in different capacities. Jovan decided to enter politics after he was recalled early as Ambassador to Indonesia, as a result of the political retaliation by the new government, mostly comprised of the prominent figures of the Milosevic regime. 

He successfully ran for the parliamentary seat in 2016. In 2017, he became the President of the Civic Platform, a new political organization advocating for the establishment of a democratic and modern state with free market, anchored in the EU and the West, based on the rule of law and full respect of human and minority rights.

During the 2016-2020 legislature, for more than a year and a half, Jovan was the President of the Parliamentary Group of the Independent MPs. Both in that capacity, and in the capacity of the President of the Civic Platform, he has participated in all major Serbian opposition activities, including signing, along with other opposition leaders, three important opposition agreements related to free and fair election. Jovan was also a member of the Serbian Parliament’s Permanent Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the continent's leading international organization in the field of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Due to his consequent struggle for democratic values, Jovan was frequently attacked and threatened by the ruling majority MPs, as well as their nationalist allies in the parliament. After finishing his MP term in August 2020, he and his Civic Platform continued their political struggle for democratization within the United Opposition of Serbia, a major opposition block comprised of the political forces that boycotted the June 2020 unfree and unfair election.

The worrisome trend of an increasing number and solidification of competitive autocracies has been particularly evident in Eastern Europe. In some countries, such as Poland and Hungary, although having a limited reach, European Union instruments prevented some of the worst consequences of government autocratic policies. In other countries, such as Serbia, these instruments are lacking and are mostly related to the EU-membership perspective, which seems ever-increasingly distant. 

This distant and growingly intangible perspective has created an opportunity for several global and regional geopolitical players with autocratic regimes, such as Russia, China, and Turkey, to try to fill in the widening void and increase their influence in the region. The space for such actors further widened due to the initial uncoordinated EU reaction to COVID-19. Such circumstances, paired with the Trump administration’s predominantly transactional foreign policy and tolerance for undemocratic practices around the globe, made some leaders in Eastern Europe, particularly in Serbia, believe that the winning formula for staying in power was strengthening an autocratic, Putin-like regime, along with trying to exert maximum benefit from playing major geopolitical actors (U.S., EU, Russia, and China) against each other. In such a way, Western countries have been frequently sacrificing democratic values for the sake of their geopolitical interests in the region.

Jim Loi: US-China relations in the Biden Administration

Jim Loi is Partner and Chief Operating Officer at The Asia Group and a member of the Executive Committee. Prior to joining The Asia Group, Jim spent 22 years in the Department of State as a career Foreign Service Officer and member of the Senior Foreign Service. Abroad he served in a range of economic, political, and security related policy and management positions at U.S. embassies in Singapore, Beijing, Pretoria, and Bucharest.

In Washington, Jim was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asian & Pacific Affairs, Director for East Asian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC), Director for China & Japan at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), and visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) – Freeman Chair in China Studies.

Throughout his career, commercial diplomacy and trade policy have been central themes in Jim’s work. At USTR he worked closely with private sector stakeholders on insurance and agricultural trade issues and at the NSC he was responsible for APEC and played a leading role in the development of the Obama Administration’s U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue. In China, he led Embassy Beijing’s Trade Policy Office, served as Mission coordinator of the Treasury Secretary Paulson’s Strategic Economic Dialogue, and sat on AmCham Beijing’s trade policy committee. He and his staff played a critical role in the tracking and enforcement of China’s WTO accession commitments and were among the first to raise early alarm bells on, and analyze the trade policy challenges posed by China's then emerging indigenous innovation policies. In Singapore, Jim and his staff monitored and led enforcement of the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement and were instrumental in facilitating negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) FTA. Jim served as a non-voting board member of AmCham Singapore, supporting the interests of the over 3,700 U.S. companies resident there.

Jim is a former U.S. Navy enlisted sailor and surface warfare officer with over 15 years of active and reserve service, including active duty tours onboard a destroyer and frigate in the Pacific Fleet. He left Naval service with the rank of Commander and is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. Jim received a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from Cornell University. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children and reside in Falls Church, VA.

Jim Loi is Partner and Chief Operating Officer at The Asia Group and a member of the Executive Committee. Prior to joining The Asia Group, Jim spent 22 years in the Department of State as a career Foreign Service Officer and member of the Senior Foreign Service. Abroad he served in a range of economic, political, and security related policy and management positions at U.S. embassies in Singapore, Beijing, Pretoria, and Bucharest.

In Washington, Jim was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asian & Pacific Affairs, Director for East Asian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC), Director for China & Japan at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), and visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) – Freeman Chair in China Studies.

Throughout his career, commercial diplomacy and trade policy have been central themes in Jim’s work. At USTR he worked closely with private sector stakeholders on insurance and agricultural trade issues and at the NSC he was responsible for APEC and played a leading role in the development of the Obama Administration’s U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue. In China, he led Embassy Beijing’s Trade Policy Office, served as Mission coordinator of the Treasury Secretary Paulson’s Strategic Economic Dialogue, and sat on AmCham Beijing’s trade policy committee. He and his staff played a critical role in the tracking and enforcement of China’s WTO accession commitments and were among the first to raise early alarm bells on, and analyze the trade policy challenges posed by China's then emerging indigenous innovation policies. In Singapore, Jim and his staff monitored and led enforcement of the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement and were instrumental in facilitating negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) FTA. Jim served as a non-voting board member of AmCham Singapore, supporting the interests of the over 3,700 U.S. companies resident there.

Jim is a former U.S. Navy enlisted sailor and surface warfare officer with over 15 years of active and reserve service, including active duty tours onboard a destroyer and frigate in the Pacific Fleet. He left Naval service with the rank of Commander and is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm. Jim received a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from Cornell University. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children and reside in Falls Church, VA.

U.S.-China Relations: Beyond the 2020 Elections

Dave Rank retired from the US Foreign Service in 2017 as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy to China. In this capacity, Mr. Rank ran the Embassy’s day-to-day operations, worked closely with his counterparts in Washington and Beijing, and served as the Chargé d’Affaires for the six months prior to Ambassador Terry Branstad’s arrival in Beijing.

Throughout his 27-year career in the US Foreign Service, Mr. Rank performed with excellence in various postings around the world. In addition to his final assignment in Beijing, Mr. Rank served in five other positions in the region: two prior posts at the US Embassy in Beijing, two at the America Institute in Taiwan, and one at the US Consulate General in Shanghai. He has also served at the US Embassies in Afghanistan, Greece, and Mauritius. Mr. Rank’s domestic assignments included Director of the State Department’s Office on Afghanistan Affairs, Senior Advisor to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and the Desk Officer for the Republic of Korea.

From 2012 to 2013, Mr. Rank served as a Dean and Virginia Rusk Fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. In 2015, Mr. Rank was awarded the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award for his role in the release of the only American service member held by the enemy in Afghanistan. He is also the recipient of the American Foreign Service Association’s Sinclaire Award for the study of languages and cultures.

In addition to his role at The Cohen Group, Mr. Rank is a Senior Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Mr. Rank speaks Mandarin, French, Dari, and Greek. A native of Chicago, Mr. Rank attended the University of Illinois. He is married with three children.

Inta Morris and Mark Hallett: “Foreign Student Contribution to Higher Education and the Impact of COVID-19”

International students are a crucial element in the quality of U.S. education and research, and for the pool of talent in U.S. industry. Foreign students contributed $45 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018 and 458,000 jobs. including $400 million and 6,000 jobs to the Colorado economy.

Columbia University estimates that 30-40% of the 1.1 million foreign students in the U.S. might not attend this year due to COVID-19, a loss of 400,000 students and $15 billion. Most foreign students pay the full cost of their education, in essence subsidizing the cost for local students.

Inta Morris joined the Department in 2007 and since then has served in several senior positions. In 2018, she took over the role of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial officer. She also developed and continues to run StudyColorado, an initiative of the state, its institutions of higher education and the business community focused on promoting Colorado as a higher education destination to international students.

Mark Hallett is responsible for management of staff, budget, programs and services for international students and scholars. CSU had 2300 foreign students and over 225 foreign scholars from over 110 countries in 2019 at its Fort Collins campus, with a total of over 34,000 students enrolled last academic year.

Dr. Jody Olson: The Peace Corps: Today and in the Future during the Age of COVID

Dr. Josephine “Jody” Olsen began her Peace Corps career in 1966 as a volunteer in Tunisia. She has since served the agency in multiple leadership positions—as Acting Director in 2009, Deputy Director from 2002- 2009, Chief of Staff, and previously as Regional Director for North Africa, Near East, and Asia Pacific.

Prior to returning to the Peace Corps in 2018 Dr. Olsen was a Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore working on global education and global health projects in numerous areas.

It is a trying time for the Peace Corps. The global novel coronavirus pandemic has required volunteers to be recalled from the field and numerous other international challenges require fresh thinking about the most effective mission for the Peace Corps in the future.

Dr. Olsen will share her thoughts and ideas with the Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council members and guests via an interactive Zoom format and answer some of our questions.

BRAZIL TODAY AND IN THE FUTURE: A Conversation between two experts

Brazil, a country in the world’s top 10 in population and GDP, is in the midst of three destructivecrises: the country is second only to the US in infections and deaths from COVID-19, many observers see President Jair Bolsonaro as putting democracy at risk, and Brazil’s economy has been badly damaged by the pandemic, with consequences for the whole region. To analyze these crises, the Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council will sponsor a conversation between two prominent authorities on Brazil via Zoom.

Dr. Robert Muggah co-founded the Igarapé Institute, an internationally recognized independent and non-partisan think tank devoted to bringing attention to the challenges of violence and insecurity across Brazil and Latin America. Igarapé works with other Brazilian and international organizations such as the United Nations and the Inter-American Development Bank to encourage changes I government policy. Muggah has a PhD from Oxford University and has presented numerous “Ted T alks”.

Andrés Schipani is the Brazil correspondent for the Financial Times of London. He has graduate degrees both from Oxford University and the Columbia University School of Journalism and has long been a keen observer of Brazilian politics, economics and culture, including time as BBC correspondent for South America.

Keith Luse: New Threats from North Korea: What does it mean?

In recent weeks North Korea has again been making threats of military action against South Korea, and indirectly against Seoul’s allies, including the United States. President Trump seems to equivocate- one time publically stressing his good personal relationship with North Korea’s President Kim Jong Un and another time being more bellicose. What is happening?

There is none able to better address this dichotomy than Keith Luse, Executive Director of The National Committee on North Korea. The National Committee on North Korea is a non-governmental organization dedicated to fostering mutual understanding and trust between the governments and peoples of the U.S. and North Korea. Its mission is to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula through education, information-sharing, and relationship-building.  

Luse has a long career in public service in international affairs. He was Senior Policy Advisor for Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar from 2002-2013. He is a specialist on North Korea and has been a frequent visitor to Pyongyang and participant in various negotiations. He has also worked with the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank.

SHAYMA JANNAT, Hong Kong Desk Officer Office of Chinese Affairs United States Department of State

This program will be presented on the Zoom platform. Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council Members will receive Zoom instructions and the meeting link shortly before the program

Shayma Jannat is a recognized leader, scholar, and keen observer of the Asian geopolitical scene. Ms Jannat is graduate of The College of William and Mary, with her graduate degree in Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy Center at Harvard University. Prior to her current responsibilities in Washington, she has had Foreign Service assignments in Burma, Kenya and Colombia, particularly working in peace and conflict management, human rights and US security interests. 

She was recently recognized as a one of the ten “young rising stars” in the State Department by Parade Magazine.

Meeting off the record. No media coverage.

Beth Payne: A Diplomat's Guide to Building Resilience

Online program in collaboration with WorldDenver.

Ambassador Christopher Hill: “Iran and Iraq, Where Do We Go From Here?

Christopher Hill is currently the Chief Global Advisor and professor of the practice in diplomacy at the University of Denver. Prior to this position, he was the dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies from September 2010 to December 2017. 



A four-time ambassador nominated by three presidents, Hill's last post was as ambassador to Iraq April 2009 until August 2010. Prior to Iraq, Hill previously served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs during which he was also the head of the U.S. delegation in six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue. Earlier, he was the U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea (2004-05), Poland (2000-04), the Republic of Macedonia (1996-99) and the special envoy to Kosovo (1998-99). 



Ambassador Hill is author of Outpost: Life on the Frontlines of American Diplomacy: A Memoir, a monthly columnist for Project Syndicate, and a highly sought public speaker and voice in the media on international affairs.

Alfredo Corchado: Homelands

Alfredo Corchado is the Mexico Border correspondent for the Dallas Morning News and author of Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter’s Journey Through a Country’s Descent into Darkness. Born in Durango, Mexico, he was raised in California and Texas. His career in journalism includes the El Paso Herald-Post, the Wall Street Journal, and The Dallas Morning News. He is a Nieman, Woodrow Wilson, Rockefeller, Lannan, USMEX and IOP fellow, and the winner of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize and Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award for Courage in Journalism. He was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2018. Corchado lives between El Paso and Mexico City but calls the border home. His latest book, HOMELANDS, was relaunched in September in Spanish and English paperback version with a new epilogue

Homelands

The border is not just a geographical place, but a mindset. It’s not a no-man’s land over run by criminals in need of a wall to separate us from them. For millions it’s just a dynamic, vibrant place surrounded by some of the safest communities anywhere; It’s also a piñata for politicians and a target for White Supremacist. Whether demographics, or economic integration, the border is a peek into the future. Join us for a conversation with Alfredo Corchado, a renowned author and reporter, about the epicenter of our Homelands, the border.

“This personal, moving tale illuminates the very heart of the polarizing immigration debate that is roiling America today.” – David Axelrod, Former Senior Advisor to Barack Obama

Stanley Harsha: Indonesia: Progressive Islam and Liberal Democracy versus Intolerance and Authoritarianism

 Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim majority nation and third largest democracy. It’s tolerant nature was shaped by thousands of years of religious syncretism in this archipelago of over 300 ethnic groups. Today, its vibrant free democracy under reformist President “Jokowi” is fending off dark forces which want to bring back authoritarianism. These former generals and greedy politicians are teaming with the rising tide of Muslim extremists, nurtured by Arab Wahabism. Stanley was witness to the transition from dictatorship to democracy. His work encompassed reaching out to Muslim youth, defending human rights and religious freedom, countering terrorism and combatting trafficking in persons.

Stanley is a former U.S. diplomat, with over 30 years of experience in Asian affairs. During his 28-year Foreign Service career, some of his postings included: U.S. Consul General for Sumatra; Democracy Unit Chief in Jakarta; interim Chief of Mission in Timor-Leste; Cultural Affairs Officer in Beijing; and Public Affairs Officer in Namibia. He also served as Executive Director of the Fulbright Scholarship Board and was a senior education and cultural affairs advisor for East Asia under Secretary Clinton.  

His critically acclaimed book, Like the Moon and the Sun, published in 2015, compares Indonesian and American societies, with analysis of culture, politics, religion and human rights, based on three decades connected to Indonesia. He also occasionally publishes essays and opinion pieces related to Indonesia. 

He now divides his time between the United States and Asia, dedicating his time to writing, advancing international educational exchanges, and promoting international tolerance and understanding. The Pueblo, Colorado native is on the advisory council for University of Colorado-Boulder’s Center for Asian Studies, and represents Colorado State University-Fort Collins in Indonesia. He is a Colorado Foothills World Affairs Council board member.

Stan and his wife Henny, an Indonesian, have a daughter, Annisa, who lives in Brooklyn and was proposed to on a Bali beach, and a son, Sean, who is an editor at the Jakarta Post.

Wendy Pearlman: We Crossed the Bridge and it trembled.

Dr. Pearlman, Professor of Middle East Studies at Northwestern University is the author of “We Crossed the Bridge and It Trembled”. Her book is the result of personal interviews with over 300 displaced Syrians across the Middle East, Europe and the United States. It chronicles the Syrian war from its origins in peaceful protest to its present horror, solely through the words of ordinary people transformed by its unfolding. Through the voices of children, parents, students, teachers, web designers, artists, playwrights, doctors, engineers and many others, we can better learn of the heart-wrenching toll of this tragic war.

“Many of these voices are unforgettable…Pearlman shapes her subjects’ narratives, winnowing interview down to stirring examples of human adaptation. Essential reading” 

 --New York Times Book Review

Ambassador Joseph Yun: Trump and Kim Jong Un: What Next?

 Ambassador Joseph Yun is senior advisor to the Asia Program at USIP and Global Affairs Analyst for CNN.  As former US Special Representative for North Korea Policy, he is recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on relations with North Korea, as well as on broader US-East Asian policy. His 33-year diplomatic career has been marked by his commitment to face-to-face engagement as the best avenue for resolving conflict and advancing cross-border cooperation.

As Special Envoy on North Korea from 2016 to 2018, Ambassador Yun led the State Department’s efforts to align regional powers behind a united policy to denuclearize North Korea. He was instrumental in reopening the “New York channel,” a direct communication line with officials from Pyongyang, through which he was able to secure the release of the American student, Otto Warmbier, who had been held in captivity for 15 months.

From 2013 to 2016 he served as US Ambassador to Malaysia, actively forwarding the administration’s goal of elevating relations with Southeast Asia. During his tenure, Ambassador Yun hosted two visits to Malaysia by President Obama—the first by any US President since 1966—resulting in the signing of the US-Malaysian Comprehensive Partnership Agreement, pledging closer cooperation on security, trade, education, technology, energy, the environment, and  people-to-people ties.

As Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs (2011-2013), he led efforts to normalize diplomatic relations with Myanmar, traveling to Rangoon as the first US-based government official to meet with Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi following her release from house arrest. He also worked to lay the foundation for official participation by the President of the United States in the annual East Asian Summit, starting from 2011.

Barbara Finamore: Will China save the planet?

In a recent book by the same title (available for purchase at the event), author Barbara Finamore proposes that with President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords, the US has defaulted as the world leader on climate change. The logical successor to assume that mantle is China. Is that possible?

Barbara Finamore has nearly four decades of experience in environmental law and energy policy. In 1996 she founded the NRDC’s China Program, the first clean energy program to be launched by an NGO. She also served as President and Chair of the Professional Association for China’s Environment (PACE) and is the founder and President of the China-US Energy Innovation Alliance.  In 2017 Barbara was named a member of Foreign Policy’s “The US-China 50” a group of 50 individuals who are powering the world’s most complex and consequential relationship. She holds a J.D. degree with honors from the Harvard Law School.

Dr. Beth Chalecki: Can We Hack the Climate? Should We? Geoengineering and International Security

Humanity is inadvertently changing the climate with our use of fossil fuels, and the effects range from severe droughts and deadly storms to agricultural failures and a melting Arctic. Mitigation agreements have been unsuccessful so far, with the repeated failure of international treaties like Paris and Kyoto. Adaptation will be necessary, but will cost possibly trillions of dollars and cause the dislocation of millions of people. What if we had a third path? Can we fix the problem with technology?

Dr. Beth Chalecki is a professor of international relations and global environmental politics at the University of Nebraska Omaha, and a non-resident research fellow at the Stimson Center. Her expertise lies in the areas of climate change and security, and the intersection of science & technology and IR. She was the Visiting Mellon Scholar for Environmental Studies at Goucher College, and has published over 20 books, articles, and book chapters on diverse topics such as climate change and Arctic security, environmental terrorism, climate change and international law, public perceptions of environmental issues, and water in outer space. She has also taught at Boston College, Boston University, California State University – Hayward and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and worked for think tanks and the governments of two countries. She holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, an M.Sc. in Environmental Geography from the University of Toronto, and an M.A. in International Affairs from Boston University.

Dr. Chalecki will highlight the national security threats that climate change poses, and talk about some climate modification techniques called geoengineering. Can we bounce sunlight out of the atmosphere before it has a chance to warm the earth? Can we pull CO2 and other greenhouse gases straight out of the air? And if we could do this, who gets to decide where to set the global thermostat?

Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow Hoover Institution, Stanford University

Larry Diamond is the founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy and also serves as senior consultant at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. His research focuses on democratic trends and conditions around the world and on policies and reforms to defend and advance democracy. He is the author of numerous books on international democracy in to be published later this year on the global crisis of democracy.

Previously he was named Stanford’s “Teacher of the Year” for his teaching that “transcends political and ideological barriers”. Diamond is widely recognized as one of world’s leading experts on the subject of democracy.