[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 112 (Tuesday, August 3, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1721-E1723]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1721]]



   ADDRESS OF JOHN BRADEMAS TO LAUNCH A DEMOCRACY FOUNDATION IN SPAIN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TIM ROEMER

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 3, 1999

  Mr. ROEMER. Mr. Speaker, because Congress is now debating legislation 
to continue funding the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), I wish 
to draw to the attention of my colleagues a most compelling address 
delivered on July 7, 1999 in Ibiza, Spain, by the chairman of the board 
of NED. He is one of my most distinguished predecessors as the U.S. 
Representative in Congress of the Third Congressional District of 
Indiana that I am now privileged to represent, the Honorable John 
Brademas.
  As those of you who served with John Brademas know, he was for 22 
years (1959-1981), an active and productive Member of the Committee on 
Education and Labor. In his last four years as a Member of Congress, 
John Brademas was, by appointment of Speaker Thomas P. (``Tip'') 
O'Neill, Jr., the House Majority Whip.
  On leaving Congress, Dr. Brademas became president of New York 
University, the nation's largest private university, a position in 
which he served for 11 years (1981-1992). Now president-emeritus, Dr. 
Brademas is also chairman, by appointment from President Clinton, of 
the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
  Dr. Brademas, a graduate of Harvard University, wrote his doctoral 
dissertation at Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. His 
subject was the anarcho-syndicalist movement in Spain from the 1920s 
through the first year of the Spanish Civil War. In 1997, in the 
presence of Their Majesties King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, 
and the First Lady of the United States, Dr. Brademas dedicated the 
King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at New York University. This Center 
is devoted to the study of modern Spain and the Spanish-speaking world.
  On July 7, 1999, Dr. Brademas delivered an address at a forum in 
Ibiza, Spain, where representatives of the two major Spanish political 
parties, including Abel Matutes, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
announced the establishment of the ``Spanish Commission to Support 
Democracy,'' a Spanish counterpart of our National Endowment for 
Democracy.
  Speaking in Spanish, Dr. Brademas said, ``The fact of a common 
language and cultural heritage, combined with the Spanish experience of 
transition from authoritarianism to democracy, afford the new Spanish 
Commission unique ways to champion the democratic cause in Spanish-
speaking America. Although every country in Latin America is at least 
semi-democratic, democratic institutions are fragile or even 
weakening.''
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the text of Dr. Brademas' address in Spain.


Address of John Brademas at a Forum To Launch a Democracy Foundation in 
                                 Spain

  There are several reasons I was pleased to accept the invitation to 
take part in this conference to mark the launch of the ``Comision 
Espanoa de Apoyo a la Democracia.''
  In the first place, Spain has been especially important in my own 
life. I first came to this country nearly fifty years ago as a student 
at Oxford University where I produced a doctoral dissertation on the 
anarcho-syndicalist movement in Spain from the mid-1920s through the 
first year of the Spanish Civil War.
  Essential to my research on the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo 
were interviews in Paris, Toulouse and Bordeaux with Spanish anarchists 
in exile, such as the remarkable Federica Montseny and Felipe Alaiz, 
one of the founders of the Federacion Anarquista Iberica.
  While at Oxford, I several times visited Barcelona where I met one of 
the leaders of the democratic Socialist underground who went on to 
positions of great responsibility in this country, Joan Reventos 
Carner, now the distinguished President of the Parliament of Catalonia, 
even as I recall, in 1952, lunching with the monks at Montserrat and 
listening to their caustic comments on both General Franco and certain 
Bishops of the Church of Spain.
  Although this is my first visit to Ibiza, I today recall having in 
1952 in Mallorca had tea with the famed British writer, Robert Graves, 
and my wife and I were pleased only this week to have spent some time 
in Palma.


                          Service in Congress

  As all of us here are by definition engaged in politics, I should 
tell you that in 1958, five years after leaving Oxford to return to my 
hometown in Indiana, I was on my third attempt elected to the Congress 
of the United States where I served for twenty-two years, all on the 
committee with responsibility for legislation affecting education.
  In 1980 I led a delegation of Congressmen to visit Spain where, at 
Moncloa, we talked with Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez, then in Barcelona 
visited the campaign headquarters of the two candidates seeking, in the 
first post-Franco free election, the presidency of the Generalitat of 
Catalonia. Their names were Jordi Pujol and Joan Reventos Carner.
  Later that year, seeking my 12th term, and a Democrat, was defeated 
in Ronald Reagan's landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter, My 
mother thought the loss fortuitous for shortly thereafter I was invited 
to become president of New York University, the largest private 
university in the United States.
  During my 11 years as president of NYU, as we call it, I think it's 
fair to say that we transformed the institution from a regional 
commuter school into a national, indeed international, residential 
research university.
  In fact, one of my major commitments as NYU's president was to 
strengthen our capacity for teaching and research about other countries 
and cultures. During my tenure, New York University established a 
Center on Japan-U.S. Business and Economic Studies, an Onassis Center 
for Hellenic Studies, a Casa Italiana and a Department and Hebrew and 
Judaic Studies.
  Finally, given my own interest in Spain and that Spanish is now the 
second language of the United States--indeed, 25 percent of the people 
in New York City speak Spanish--I decided to move on the frente 
espanol!
  In 1983 I awarded his first honorary degree to His Majesty, King Juan 
Carlos I of Spain, and established a catedra in his name under which 
there have come to NYU, as visiting professors, some of the world's 
leading authorities on modern Spain, including Francisco Ayala, Jose 
Ferrater Mora, John Elliott, Jose Maria Maravall, Hugh Thomas, Eduardo 
Subirats, Jon Juaristi, Estrella de Diego and my own Oxford 
dissertation advisor, Raymond Carr.


                   King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center

  In 1997, in the presence of Their Majesties, King Juan Carlos and 
Queen Sofia, and of the First Lady of the United States, Hillary Rodham 
Clinton, we dedicated the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, devoted 
to the study of modern Spain and the Spanish-speaking world.
  In the relatively brief life of the Center, we have developed an 
intensive program of activities. We have been honored by visits of the 
former Prime Minister of Spain, Felipe Gonzalez, and his successor, 
Jose Maria Aznar. Last year, under the leadership of the distinguished 
former Mayor of Barcelona, Pasqual Maragall, we conducted a forum on 
the future of cities. Among those participating were the Mayors of 
Barcelona, Joan Clos; Sevilla, Soledad Becerril; Santiago de 
Compostela, Xerardo Estevez; and of Santiago de Chile; Cuauhtemoc 
Cardenas of Mexico City; Rio de Janciro; New York City; Indianapolis 
and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
  In September the King Juan Carlos Center conducted a symposium on 
``Twenty Years of Spanish Democracy'', with eminent intellectuals from 
Spain joining American scholars. The conference included such persons 
as Javier Tussell, Charles Powell, Juan Linz, Victor Perez-Diaz and 
Jose Pedro Perez-Llorca and featured addresses by the new United States 
Ambassador, Eduardo Romero, and the distinguished Foreign Minister of 
Spain, Abel Matutes, whose consistency, I am well aware, is Ibiza.
  In November I was in Buenos Aires, speaking at the National Academy 
of Education in Argentina and the University of Buenos Aires while in 
December I was here in Spain, to speak at the University of Alcala, in 
Alcala de Henares, birthplace of Cervantes.
  In April I was in Cadiz, birthplace of the Constitution of 1812, for 
nearly two centuries an inspiration to peoples throughout the world who 
cherish the principles of democracy, freedom and the protections of 
constitutional government.
  In all these places, I took note of the rising importance in the 
United States of Spanish speakers, now some 28 million--and urged

[[Page E1722]]

that even as we have been forging, with increased investment in Latin 
America by Spanish business firms and continuing U.S. investment there, 
a ``triangular'' economic relationship, so, too, we should develop what 
I would call ``triangular'' relationships among universities in the 
United States, Latin America and Spain.
  So from what I've said, you will understand why I rejoice at the 
opportunity to be back in Spain.
  But there is another reason I'm pleased to participate in this 
conference. For over two decades, as I have said, I was a working 
politician--fourteen times a candidate for election to the Congress of 
the United States, winning eleven and losing three campaigns.
  So I am deeply devoted to the processes of democracy and that my late 
father was born in Greece--I was the first native-born American of 
Greek origin elected to Congress--enhanced that commitment.


                    NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY

  For the last several years, however, I've had a direct involvement 
with an entity dedicated to encouraging democracy in countries that do 
not enjoy it.
  I speak of the National Endowment of Democracy, established in 1983 
by a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, and a Democratic Congress. 
NED, as we call it, is a non-governmental organization, albeit financed 
with government funds, that makes grants to private organizations in 
other countries, organizations struggling to develop free and fair 
elections, independent media, independent judiciary and the other 
components of a democratic society.
  I am pleased that the able President of NED, Carl Gershman, will take 
part in our discussions in Ibiza later this week.
  In light of developments in Kosovo, I must note that last March I 
joined a colleague in the United States and several in Europe to create 
what we are calling a Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in 
Southeast Europe, the Balkans.
  Based in Salonika, the Center is governed by persons, the majority of 
whom are from the region itself.
  We know that the task of building democracy in that troubled part of 
Europe will be daunting and require not months but years. Yet we want 
at least to plant the seeds of free and democratic institutions in the 
Balkans.
  I think it significant in this respect that several eminent Spanish 
leaders have been playing significant roles in pursuing this same 
objective. I cite here, to illustrate, Felipe Gonzalez, Javier Solana, 
Carlos Westendorp and Alberto Navarro, Director of ECHO, the European 
Community Office for Human Assistance.
  This observation brings me to the third and final reason I'm pleased 
to be here. As a sometime scholar, practicing politician and university 
president, I have pursued careers central to which has been the 
connection--or lack thereof--between ideas and action. For the purpose 
of this forum is to consider how the political parties of modern, 
democratic Spain can, working together, help translate the idea of 
democracy into reality in places of the world where the institutions of 
self-government either do not exist or are struggling to survive.


             ``DEMOCRATIC SPAIN HAS A DEMOCRATIC VOCATION''

  The thesis of my remarks today is simple and straightforward. It is 
that democratic Spain has a democratic vocation, a calling, a 
responsibility--use whatever word you like--to join the National 
Endowment for Democracy, the Westminster Foundation and other 
democracy-promoting organizations in contributing to that cause.
  I am especially impressed that representatives of the major Spanish 
political parties are cooperating to that end even as, in the United 
States, the National Endowment for Democracy was the product of 
collaboration between a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, and a 
Congress controlled in both chambers by the Democratic Party.
  Now having been coming to Spain since before some of you here were 
born, I have observed at first hand the transition that Spaniards have 
made from an authoritarian regime to democracy.
  The drama of that transition is exciting and one of which Spaniards 
can be justly proud. At the same time, you and I know that Spain has 
still much work to do to ensure that the institutions of democracy in 
your country are functioning as they should and that all the peoples of 
Spain are effectively engaged in the democratic process.
  I add that I have just read a splendid new book that I commend to you 
as a history of the Spanish transition and an articulation of the 
challenges ahead. The book, by my friend, the distinguished Spanish 
scholar, Victor Perez-Diaz, is entitled, Spain at the Crossroads: Civil 
Society, Politics and the Rule of Law, to be published in September by 
Harvard University Press.
  I hasten to say that we in the United States have challenges to our 
own political system. For example, far too few eligible citizens even 
bother to vote, and the scramble for huge sums of money to finance 
electoral campaigns is an ongoing threat to the integrity of the 
American democracy.
  In any event, I believe that Spain, and Spanish political parties in 
particular, can offer lessons of immense value to other parts of the 
world where democracy is under siege.
  I have already noted Spanish leadership in Southeast Europe. You here 
will much better know than I the opportunities for Spain in promoting 
democracy in North Africa, in Algeria and Morocco.
  The region to which, it seems to me, in the century soon to begin, 
democratic Spain has now an opportunity--indeed, a particular 
responsibility--to assist democracy, is Latin America.


                 THE DEMOCRATIC CAUSE IN LATIN AMERICA

  First, I think it obvious that the fact of a common language and 
cultural roots combines with Spain's experience of democratic 
transition to afford Spain unique gateways to champion the democratic 
cause in Latin America.
  Here let me take as a point of reference a series of articles on 
``Latin America's Imperiled Progress'' in the latest issue of the 
Journal of Democracy, the quarterly published by the National Endowment 
for Democracy. For the thread that runs through most of these essays is 
that although ``[e]very country except Cuba is now at least a 
semidemocracy . . . in many countries democratic institutions are 
fragile or even weakening.'' \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Footnotes follow address.
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  The Journal of Democracy offers several analyses characterized by 
such comments as these:
  `` . . . [In] Brazil . . . in spite of President Fernando Henrique 
Cardoso's valiant efforts to prevent an economic meltdown, political 
reform appears imperative if Brazil is to avoid a renewed descent into 
crisis and ungovernability.'' \2\
  Of Venezuela and of the recent presidential election, ``the future of 
democracy now seems in doubt . . .'' \3\
  Again, ``. . . In the wake of President Alberto Fujimori's 1992 
autogolpe, Peru's traditional political parties have been decimated, 
and the democratic opposition remains weak and narrowly based . . .'' 
\4\
  Another comment: ``A more heartening story comes from Paraguay, where 
the murder of the vice-president galvanized an outpouring of popular 
indignation that ultimately forced the resignation of President Raul 
Cubas . . .'' \5\


                        PRESIDENT CARTER'S FORUM

  Here I note that last May I was in Atlanta, Georgia, to take part in 
a forum convened by former President Jimmy Carter who brought together 
former presidents and prime ministers from Latin America to discuss 
issues of transparency, corruption and political reform in the region.
  In Argentina and Mexico, as we are all aware, corruption scandals at 
the highest levels of government have commanded the attention of 
observers all over the world. Indeed, I think you will agree that the 
issue of corruption today is far more visible than it has ever been. I 
myself am active in the organization, Transparency International, 
founded several years ago, for the express purpose of combating 
corruption in international business transaction.
  Obstacles to genuine democracy in Latin America include, in too many 
countries--Peru is a blatant example--of a rubber-stamp Congress and a 
judiciary controlled by the executive.
  In many Latin American countries, on the other hand, we have seen the 
development of lively and vigorous non-governmental organizations, 
essential to a flourishing civil society which, in turn, is 
indispensable to an effective democracy.
  I must note another Journal of Democracy article whose author, 
Professor Scott Mainwaring of the University of Notre Dame (in the 
district I once represented in Congress) reminds us that although ``In 
1978, the outlook for democracy in Latin America was bleak . . ., [t]he 
situation has now changed profoundly in the last two decades. By 1990, 
virtually every government in the region was either democratic or 
semidemocratic. . . .'' \6\
  Mainwaring observes that since 1978, ``The increase in the number of 
democracies in Latin America has been dramatic, and the demise of 
authoritarianism even more so'',\7\ but lists two countries ``where 
democracy has lost ground: Venezuela and arguably, Colombia. . . .'' 
\8\
  Mainwaring adds that despite often dismal economic performance and 
continued presidentialism, a number of Latin American countries with 
elected governments have survived.


                CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRACY IN LATIN AMERICA

  What then are the challenges to effective democracy in Latin America, 
democracy that goes beyond the characteristic, essential but not 
sufficient, of ``elected government''?

[[Page E1723]]

  I can do no better in listing these challenges than by referring to 
the testimony, on June 16, 1999, before the Committee on International 
Relations of the United States House of Representatives, of the Senior 
Program Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean of the National 
Endowment for Democracy, Christopher Sabatini.
  All the areas cited by Dr. Sabatini are ones to which the United 
States, other countries, international organizations and, I am 
asserting, especially Spain, can make a significant, and positive, 
contribution:
  Strengthening the rule of law and enhancing citizen access to the 
judicial system. The administration of justice is weak in most 
countries of Latin America.
  Fighting corruption. This means finding ways in which civil society 
can press elected officials for public access to information and can 
work to increase the transparency and effectiveness of election and 
campaign finance laws.
  Building democratic political parties. Establishing viable and 
representative political parties is essential to democratic 
participation, governance and stability in Latin America.
  Battling crime. The democratic solution to rising crime requires 
improving the criminal justice system, bolstering the police and 
involving civil society groups both to combat crime and check state 
encroachment on civil liberties.
  Improving civil-military relations. Both civilians and military 
leaders need to understand their respective responsibilities. The armed 
forces should be educated on their roles and duties in a democracy.
  Defending freedom of the press. Liberty of expression is fundamental 
to a transparent, democratic system but such freedom is under attack in 
Latin America. Each country must develop a national network to defend a 
freedom indispensable to genuine democracy.
  Pressing economic growth and reducing inequality of incomes. The wide 
gap between rich and poor in Latin America is a continuing threat to 
democratic development there.
  Modernizing local governments. Decentralization of resources and 
responsibilities can better serve citizens but only if accompanied by 
measures to ensure local levels of accountability.
  I add, by way of generalization, that it seems to me imperative, if 
democratic institutions are to take root and flourish in Latin America, 
legislative bodies and judicial systems must, like the media, be 
independent of control by the executive branch of government.


            ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES IN STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY

  In all these respects, I take the further liberty of suggesting, I 
believe there are potential contributions to the development of 
democracy to be made by universities. Institutions of higher learning 
can play a valuable role in strengthening democracy. As two respected 
scholars, Jorge Balan of the Ford Foundation and Daniel C. Levy of the 
State University of New York at Albany, have insisted, in shaping an 
agenda for research on higher education policy in Latin America, it is 
not enough to focus on modernization. Although, they argue, political 
economics, public policy-making, management and leadership are all 
legitimate subjects for university courses, they do not suffice. 
Universities must also look to the study of democracy, of civil 
society, freedom, of transitions from authoritarianism, of the 
consolidation of democratic regimes.


                      WORDS OF KING JUAN CARLOS I

  Allow me to conclude these remarks with words spoken at my university 
just sixteen years ago by a distinguished foreign visitor. Upon 
receiving the degree of doctor of laws, honoris causa, our guest spoke 
of the new challenges posed by society and of the role of what he 
called the ``humanistic vocation'' in meeting those challenges. Said 
our eminent honoree: ``For all of us, professors, students, citizens 
and rulers, the adaptation of . . . structures to a world in which 
universal values of freedom, equality and justice prevail, must be a 
task of high priority. It is a mission that justifies any sacrifice, 
and must inspire our will and our imagination.''
  The speaker at New York University was, of course, His Majesty, King 
Juan Carlos I, and his words in December 1983 eloquently invoke the 
spirit that draws us together today.
  I congratulate all of you on your historic achievement in creating 
the ``Comision Espanola de Apoyo a la Democracia'' and wish you well.


                               Footnotes

     \1\ ``Latin America's Imperiled Progress, Journal of 
     Democracy, vol. 10, no. 3, July 1999, p. 33.
     \2\ Ibid.
     \3\ Ibid.
     \4\ Ibid.
     \5\ Ibid.
     \6\ ``The Surprising Resilience of Elected Governments,'' 
     Journal of Democracy, vol. 10, no. 3, July 1999, p. 101.
     \7\ Ibid., p. 103.
     \8\ Ibid., p. 106.

                          ____________________