WHO WE ARE

The Democracy Center works globally to advance social justice through investigation and reporting, training citizens in public advocacy, and leading international citizen campaigns.

The Democracy Center in the Media

Here is a partial list and links to some of the articles published by and about The Democracy Center in the media, in the US, Europe and elsewhere.

About the Democracy Center

Ex-Area Activist Drawn Into Bolivia Water War

A June 2005 profile of The Democracy Center's executive director, Jim Shultz, in the Sacramento Bee.

Armed with Democracy

A June 2002 Profile of The Democracy Center's executive director, Jim Shultz, in the Sacramento News and Review.

Catchy Title, Solid Advice

An October 2002 profile of The Democracy Center's executive director, Jim Shultz, by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Democracy for Dummies

A January 2003 Harvard Political Review article about The Democracy Center's policy and advocacy guide, The Democracy Owners' Manual.

On Globalization

Jim Shultz, co-editor was an in-studio guest on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. You can watch at this link.

Chicago Public Radio aired an hour-long interview with Jim Shultz.

Grit TV filmed a panel discussion on U.S./Latin America relations.

IMF Policies Seen Firsthand in Bolivia

An interview in the Seattle Times with two Democracy Center volunteers, about their experiences helping research the Center's report on the International Monetary Fund in Bolivia, Deadly Consquences (April 9, 2005) .

The Politics of Water in Bolivia

Once again, World Bank water policy is challenged by the poorest. An editorial by Jim Shultz in The Nation (February 14, 2005) .

Bringing it all Back Home

Strategies for globalization with justice, an article by Jim Shultz in the UK's New Internationalist magazine (January 2002).

Public pressure forces Becthtel to drop water case

An interview by the on-line business magazine, Business News Americas, with The Democracy Center's executive director, Jim Shultz (January 2006).

Government seeks amicable end to Illimani contract

An article posted in Business News Americas featuring Jim Shultz (January 2005)

On Bolivia

From Win at Polls, Bolivia's Morales Segues to Scandal

Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service (March 1, 2009) "I don't think it's any secret to anybody that corruption in the Bolivian government did not end when Evo Morales became president," said Jim Schultz, who runs the Bolivia-based Democracy Center, a think tank on globalization issues. "The question now is how tough is Evo going to be?"

Despite Feats, President of Bolivia Stirs Fierce Debate

Joshua Partlow, Washington Post Foreign Service article (February 15, 2009) "This is a country that has existed in a state of de facto apartheid for decades, centuries, millennia, depends on how you want to count it," said Jim Shultz, director of the Democracy Center, a human rights organization based in Bolivia. "For people who were so used to being marginalized, even though they're the majority, to see somebody who looks like them, who dresses like them, who talks like them, become the president of their country, you can't underestimate the emotional symbolism of that."

Splits remain as Bolivians back new constitution

Naomi Mapstone in Lima and Andres Schipani in La Paz, Frinancial Times article (January 27 2009) But Jim Shultz, director of the Democracy Center, a Cochabamba-based think-tank, said that although strong divisions remained between the eastern lowlands, home to most of the country's big landholders and its natural gas reserves, and the indigenous strongholds of La Paz and the mountains, the referendum conferred a mandate on the president.

Bolivian Is an Uneasy Ally as U.S. Presses Drug War

Simon Romero, The New York Times, (August 29, 2008) “The Chapare was the caldron of violence out of which Evo was born,” said Jim Shultz, a political analyst in Cochabamba. “If there had not been a U.S. war on drugs, there would not have been a President Evo.”

Morales seen winning Bolivia vote, reforms in air
Simon Gardner, Reuters (August 7, 2008) "Bolivia has been in a state of political stalemate for over a year, and no matter how the votes count up after Sunday, Bolivia will still be in a place of political stalemate," said Jim Shultz, executive director of the Democracy Center think-tank in Cochabamba. "We are likely to see continued battles between the president and regional governments over what kind of decentralization and autonomy takes place. Land reform will probably continue to be stalled completely, and there will be ongoing fights over how to divide up the expanding pie of natural gas and oil revenue."

Political unrest ahead of Bolivia recall election

Annie Murphy, Chronicle Foreign Service article (August 6, 2008) "Whenever the national government here looks weak, people start playing hardball with their demands," said Jim Shultz of the Democracy Center. "Right now there's no real authority. No one has the final word."

President Morales sets date of Bolivia recall vote

Dan Keane, The Associated Press article (May 12, 2008) "It's great Bolivian chess," said Jim Shultz, director of the nonprofit Democracy Center, which monitors Bolivian politics. "I'm assuming they've played through all the moves, and it's not a bad board for Evo Morales. Not a bad board at all."

Revolt against the peasant president

Rory Carroll and Andres Schipani in Santa Cruz, The Observer, (May 4 2008) 'Bolivia essentially used to function as an apartheid state, and the psychology of the elite is very defensive,' said Jim Shultz, director of the Democracy Centre, a Cochabamba-based think-tank sympathetic to government aims.

Town in the Andes face crisis as glaciers melt

Annie Murphy, Chronicle Foreign Service article (April 24, 2008) Jim Shultz, director of the Democracy Center, a San Francisco advocacy group with an office in the city of Cochabama, says water shortages will cause price hikes, a thriving black market, protests and even panic. "In El Alto, you have a highly politicized society that already organizes quickly, and already lacks access to water because of infrastructure," said Shultz. "Throw in the element of an environmental crisis, and that situation reaches a breaking point."

Bolivians Now Hear Ominous Tones in the Calls to Arms

Simon Romero, The New York Times, (December 15, 2007) “Evo, in trying to empower the indigenous, has made the same mistake Chávez did in trying to empower the poor,” said Jim Shultz, a political analyst in Cochabamba. “Evo also erred in trying to mix that agenda with trying to empower his political movement.”

Violence erupts as Bolivia faces crisis over constitutional reform

Jack Chang, McClatchy Newspaper article (Dec. 3, 2007) "People are pretty nervous in a way they haven't been in a while," said Jim Shultz, the Bolivia-based executive director of the Democracy Center, a nonprofit social justice group. "Something has happened, and the two sides are raising the tensions."

Pressure mounting on Bolivia's Morales

Tyler Bridges, Miami Herald (Nov. 09, 2007) ''There's a sense among many people in Bolivia that Evo Morales is trying to make changes to improve their lives,'' said Jim Shultz, an American who runs a nonprofit group based in Cochabamba that is sympathetic to the government's aims. ``Evo has clearly identified himself as an indigenous president.''

Bolivians in High Dudgeon Over Soccer Ban

Simon Romero, The New York Times, (June 17, 2007) “Bolivia’s dedication to soccer cuts across the deep dividing lines in the country, which are economic, racial, regional and ideological,” said Jim Shultz, a political analyst in Cochabamba, in central Bolivia. “Fighting the ban is great domestic politics.”

Bolivia plans to coca exports in face of treaty

Tyler Bridges, Miami Herald (March 8, 2007) Jim Shultz, a U.S. citizen who runs a research-oriented nonprofit in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba that is sympathetic to Morales, believes the U.S. government should support a change in the 1961 Convention to allow Bolivia to export coca products. ''U.S. policy has been to try to get [coca growers] to produce bananas and pineapples, while using repression [through forced eradication],'' Shultz said. ''It has never worked'' because coca generates at least double the income of any alternative.

Venezuela Rivals U.S. in Aid to Bolivia

Simon Romero, The New York Times, (February 23, 2007) “The direct relationship with Chávez hasn’t been problematic for Evo Morales so far,” said Jim Shultz, executive director of the Democracy Center, a nonprofit institute in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba. “The I.M.F. is a banker without clients in parts of Latin America.”

Morales stays above divided Bolivia

Tyler Bridges, Miami Herald ''Are the lessons from the deaths in Cochabamba that they'll ratchet up the political conflict or will they find a way to resolve them? It's an open question,'' said Jim Shultz, an American who heads a nonprofit group in Cochabamba sympathetic to Morales' aims.``This was groups of citizens against other groups of citizens that has the potential to be much worse in the future. That's what civil wars look like. I see virtually no one trying to use their voices to create a middle ground.''

Ground zero in Bolivia's dispute

Patrick J. McDonnell, LATimes Staff Writer (Jan 27, 2007) "If you'd asked me six months ago if Evo's government would survive, I'd have replied, 'Yes, absolutely,' " said Jim Shultz, a Californian who works with a nonprofit pro-democracy organization here. "I still say 'yes' today, but the possibilities of 'no' are rising."

Uneasy peace as divisions in Bolivian deepen

Hal Weitzman in Lima, The Financial Times article, (Jan 26, 2007) For the moment there is an uneasy peace, but many fear further confrontations are likely. ¸The problem is that there is no mediating force,¸ says Jim Shultz, a Cochabamba resident who runs the Democracy Center, a non-governmental organisation¸ There's not much of a 'middle of the road' left.

6 Bolivian Leaders Cut Ties With Morales

Monte Reel, Washington Post Foreign Service (November 21, 2006) Jim Shultz, director of the Cochabamba-based Democracy Center, said he believes that the governors' protests are strategic reactions to Morales's stated goal of shifting power away from traditional elites and toward wider swaths of the population. "Bolivia is going through a truly historical transfer of who has the power in this country, and the stakes are so high that every inch of political territory is fought over," Shultz said. "Why create a crisis over whether little bits and pieces of the constitution require two-thirds or a majority vote? It's because this is all part of a much bigger dance for power in this country."

Bolivia Counry Profile

An overview of the country by Jim Shultz, published in the British Monthly, The New Internationalist (May 2004).

U.S. Threatens Bolivia in Effort to Secure Criminal Court Immunity

Pacific News Service article by Jim Shultz and Bolivian journalist Luis Bredow (March 3, 2005)

Another Water Revolt Begins in Bolivia

Pacific News Service article by Jim Shultz (Dec. 17, 2004): Five years after water privatization raised water rates and sparked deadly riots in Cochabamba, Bolivia, another water war is brewing in in the country, in a city to the north.

Behind Bolivia's Gas War

Pacific News Service article by Jim Shultz (Oct. 17, 2003): To Bolivians marching in the streets, "free" trade of natural gas or other resources from their impoverished country to California is just another name for theft.

Bechtel Vs. Bolivia - Time to Open Up Secret Trade Courts

Pacific News Service article by Jim Shultz (Nov. 08, 2002): Two years ago, rioters protesting increased water rates forced a U.S. company in Bolivia to pack its bags and leave. Now, in a harbinger of the loss of local control through globalization, the corporation is striking back in secret proceedings.

Bolivia's 'Texan' President Does U.S. Bidding

Pacific News Service article by Jim Shultz (March 20, 2002): High on the agenda at President Bush's meeting with Andean presidents will be free-market and drug policies, just the problems looming larger every day for Bolivia's boyish-looking new technocrat president, Jorge Quiroga. Also being charged with serious rights abuses, Quiroga's administration is breeding resentment where hope had reigned.

Leasing the Rain

The site for the July 2002 PBS film on the Cochabamba water revolt. For the transcript of the entire program click here.

Bechtel Puts Squeeze on Bolivia's Poor

Pacific News Service article by Jim Shultz (Dec. 19, 2001): Two years ago, Bolivians rioted when a subsidiary of corporate giant Bechtel tripled water rates in the country's third-largest city. Now, Bechtel is suing the Bolivian government for $25 million in damages and lost future profits.

Paying the Price of Privatization -- A Bolivian Town Goes to War Over Water

Pacific News Service article by Jim Shultz (Feb. 08, 2000): The doctrine of privatization moves so swiftly across the underdeveloped world that there is rarely a chance to see what is actually going on.

ON CALIFORNIA

A Noble Way to End the California Budget Crisis

A tounge-in-cheek article in the Sacramento Bee proposing that the gloden state auction off titles of nobility to raise ravenue (May 9, 2004).