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Latin America in the Global Scenario
Thomas Walker
"Electoral Observation: A Tool for Democratization and Peace in Latin America"
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Noon
Mershon Center for International Security Studies
1501 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 43201
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This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American Studies.
Thomas Walker is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Director Emeritus of Latin American Studies at Ohio University in Athens.
Walker is both a Brazilianist and a Central Americanist. He did his dissertation research in Brazil and has published a book about politics in that country: Dos Coroneis a Metropole: Fios e Tramas da Sociedade e da Politica em Ribeirao Preto no Seculo 20, with Agnaldo Sousa Barbosa (Palavra Magica, 2000).
Regarding Central America, Walker is author of The Christian Democratic Movement in Nicaragua (University of Arizona Press, 1970) and Nicaragua: The Land of Sandino (Westview, 1981, 1986, 1991, 2003 with subtitle Living in the Shadow of the Eagle), as well as a number of articles and chapters.
He is also the co-author with John A. Booth of Understanding Central America (Westview, 1989, 1993, 1999), which with a third co-author, Christine Wade, came out in a fourth edition in 2006 with the subtitle Global Forces, Rebelion, and Change.
Walker is also editor and co-author of Nicaragua in Revolution (Praeger, 1982), Nicaragua: The First Five Years (Praeger, 1985), Reagan Versus the Sandinistas: The Undeclared War on Nicaragua (Westview, 1987), Revolution and Counterrevolution in Nicaragua (Westview, 1991), and Nicaragua Without Illusions: Regime Transition and Structural Adjustment in the 1990s (Scholarly Resources, 1997).
He is also co-editor and co-author with Sung Ho Kim of Perspectives on War and Peace in Central America (Ohio University Press, 1992), and with Ariel C. Armony of Repression, Resistance and Democratic Transition in Central America (Scholarly Resources, 2000).
In 1982-83 Walker served on the national Central American Task Force of the United Presbyterian Church's Council on Church and Society. In 1983-84, he was founding co-chair of The Latin American Studies Association's Task Force on Scholarly Relations with Nicaragua (now expanded to Central America as a whole).
In 1984, 1989-90, and 1996, he served on international delegations that observed Nicaragua's national elections. With those experiences, he was later invited to be part of the Carter Center's teams which observed the 2004 presidential recall referendum in Venezuela and the 2006 national elections in Nicaragua.
Walker holds a B.A. in Political Science from Brown University, and an M.A. (Latin American Studies) and Ph.D. (Political Science) from the University of New Mexico.
Lecture Abstract
Formal electoral observation by credentialed international groups began in Latin America with the controversial but clean Nicaraguan election of 1984. Conducted by a number of credible groups -- ranging from the British Parliament and House of Lords to the Latin American Studies Association -- the results of these efforts were, nevertheless, studiously ignored by the mainstream press in the United States.
Since then, many dozens of elections in the region have undergone close international scrutiny, more sophisticated technology of observation has been developed, and new entities -- such as the Carter Center, the Organization of American States and the United Nations -- have become involved.
Now, international observation can no longer be ignored even in the United States and even when U.S. "enemies" such as Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega (the clear winner in 1984, and now 2006) are the victors. In addition to keeping the record straight throughout the world, international observation serves to reassure voters that the world is watching and to preserve peace throughout and following tense electoral contests.
Thomas Walker, who was an observer with LASA in Nicaragua in 1984, 1990, and 1996, also observed for the Carter Center in Venezuela in
2004 and Nicaragua in 2006. He will discuss the evolving role, techniques, and importance of international electoral observation in Latin America from 1984 to the present.
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