In my travels through developing, what used to be called developing countries in particular, we now call them emerging market countries

or post-communist countries in every continent of the world. I have been struck and we will see quite a wealth of public opinion survey data that I think will underscore the extent to which democracy has become a broadly-shared aspiration in the world even a universal value. And the question that has very substantially motivated my writing and my desire to be supportive, to be engaged to see the United States and other democracies become a partner in trying to facilitate and improve the functioning of democracy around the world or to assist its emergence where it doesn't exist. My motivation, in part, has been a response to what I have seen in terms of less fortunate societies that have long been trapped in authoritarianism and massive political and social inequality and injustice. And in those circumstances of considerable repression and often very great risk for decent for independent political opposition and mobilization, the question arises, why do people take these risks? Why did Nelson Mandela engage in a form of political resistance that sent him to prison for 29 years much of it spent here on the desolate and forbidding terrain of Robben Island outside of Cape Town? the home of a prison camp in which many of the leaders of the African National Congress, the ANC, spent the prime of their life. How did it come to be that Nelson Mandela ultimately triumphed by emerging out of prison, prison? A proud and principled, but yet pragmatic man, who lead the negotiations with the Apartheid regime in South Africa for one of the most successful transitions to democracy. A transition that was notably peaceful in circumstances that could have turned violent in the context of South African completed with the successful national election in 1994. What led this extraordinarily courageous, and principled, and humane, human rights and democracy activist and intellectual, in the center of these photographs here, Liu Xiaobo.

To take the risks he took to challenge the authoritarian nature of rule in China and organize a petition for freedom in China, Charter 08, that was signed, that was signed by thousands of Chinese intellectuals, civil society leaders dissidents, activists and people who simply want to see the emergence of a free, open democratic society in their country. Why would a nuclear physicist of the stature and security the fame and privilege of Andrei Sakharov in the Soviet Union turn from his privileged position in the Soviet physical sciences, the father of the Soviet atom bomb to the campaign for peace and human rights in the Soviet Union, and the ostracism that he suffered as a result? What motivates individuals like this to take great risks for freedom and democracy? We see this story so universally around the world and tragically the price that is sometimes paid by people who take leadership positions in the struggle for democracy. Like the Mongolian politician and civic leader, Zorig Sanjaassuren, who was a prominent Mongolian politician and youth leader who helped to make the 1990 democratic revolution in Mongolia as the Soviet Union was decomposing and the movement for freedom was spreading throughout the communist world. And who tragically was assassinated at the age of 36, in the prime of his life, by unknown assailants, leaving behind a wide number Mongolian youth who had been inspired by him and who've carried on his work and his Civil Society Organization, the Zorig Foundation for Advancing Democracy. Or, of course, the legacy of one of the great pro-democracy leaders of our time. someone who I think stands, in terms of historical perspective with the vision, the courage, and the international prestige and inform, and inspiration that, Nelson Mandela has achieved from his experience in South Africa, namely Aung San Suu Kyi. When you meet individuals like Daw Suu Kyi, one cannot help become, but become inspired by their vision, the strength and conviction of their values the degree of strategy and political reflection that has to go into the calculations and choices they make in a transitional period.

Understanding that politics can not only be about pure morality that as we'll see when we study transitions to democracy. The transitional politics is very much about having to make difficult and painful choices. It's not only about inspiration, but it's about strategy and organization. and the great democratic leaders of our times who have helped to bring about democracy in difficult circumstances have been leaders who combined moral prestige and integrity with a strong dose of pragmatism, of generosity, of magnanimity, of reaching out across polarized lines. And of creating a new type of dialogue, and a system of what the great Yale political scientist, Robert Dahl, called mutual security. This is, I believe, part of the project that Aung San Suu Kyi is now engaged in in Burma, that may heavily affect whether Burma succeeds in its transition to democracy. Burma is privileged to have an extraordinary array of civil society leaders, who have paid dearly as Daw Suu Kyi did. having spent 15 of 20 years of her life under confinement to her house, under house arrest in very difficult and emotionally trying circumstances. But so many Burmese lost the prime of their youth in jail, or even lost their lives in repression. Here we see, on the left-hand side, is student leader. Ko Jimmy is his nickname. On the right, one of the most important leaders of the student movement for democracy in Burma, when it rose up in 1988, against the dictatorship of General Ne Win. On the right, we see Min Ko Naing who co-founded the All Burma Federation of Student Unions in 1988, in the uprising against the military dictatorship. And then, himself, spent 15 years in prison as a political prisoner. And then when he was released, he and his colleagues like Ko Jimmy founded the 88 Generation Students Group, one of the most important networks and advocacy groups for a full democratic transition and the remaking of Burma as a democratic society. How do people like this risk so much for democracy? And how do they emerge out of prison

having lost the prime of the their youthful years with the freedom from bitterness and the focus on the practical challenges of democracy building that they indeed have. If we can understand their experience and draw from their model and their personal values, we might do much to advance democracy around the world and build a global network of democrats who are seeking the common goal of free and accountable government around the world. Here is a woman I've come to know in my travels. and through her presence in the United States, unfortunately in exile now, who's been called the Aung San Suu Kyi of Ethiopia. Birtukan Mideksa is her name. And she is a judge who simply tried to enforce the law in a neutral and dispassionate way as a young judge in Ethiopia, and ran afoul of an authoritarian regime that wanted the judiciary to be pliant and accept instructions from the ruling authoritarian regime. Refusing to accept those instructions, believing in the principle of the rule of law, that no one is above the law, and everyone is equal before the law. Birtukan left the judiciary to form an opposition party and challenge the incumbent government in national elections. For this act of great temerity, she, herself, became a political prisoner, and spent several years in prison. Why do people like this, people with so much to, to lose with the opportunity to become comfortable in the existing structure, with young children and families, that themselves may be vulnerable, why do they take these great risks? Why did the leader of the Zimbabwean political opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, when he suffered a death, a series of death threats in his efforts to lead and unite the political opposition in a challenge to the authoritarian rule, now more than 30 years long of President Robert Mugabe. why did Tsvangirai continue in this campaign for democracy in Zimbabwe, when he suffered a very narrow escape from an assassination attempt on at least one and possibly several occasions? When his wife was killed in an automobile crash, in what some people believe was

possibly another assassination attempt. And when his supporters have suffered the massive retaliation of physical violence, torture, and intimidation that was visited upon them in the 2008 presidential election campaign, which most independent observers believe the Tsvangirai's MDC, his opposition party would have won. Many people would have quit at that point. Why did Tsvangirai continue to the point where at the moment, he shares power very uneasily with Mugabe and the ruling ZANU-PF party in a difficult and stressful coalition government. We will be looking at the democratic changes that have happened in the Arab world and the extraordinary stories of people like this young woman, Esraa Abdel Fattah of Egypt, a leader of the April 6th Youth Movement, launched in 2008, to support the demand of Egyptian workers for better wages and basic rights as workers. It was Esraa's innovation to launch the general strike on Facebook that rallied so many young Egyptians to the cause and created the platform for a whole new movement and a whole new generation of political action in Egypt that helped to lay the path, the tools, the groundwork for that fed into the Arab Spring. And that helped, eventually helped bring down the Mubarak regime in the revolution that toppled him in February of 2011. Esraa, herself has been harassed, has been sent to prison has been threatened. Why do civil society leaders like this with so much of their lives ahead continue on in the face of risks for this abstract principle that is democracy? Here, we have another Arab activist, Abduljalil Al-Singace, someone we came to know well. Here at Standord University, he spent three weeks at the center I direct here, the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law as a summer fellow listening to some of the same lectures that you will listen to in this course. Engaging peers from around the world who are trying to campaign for and build democracy in the hope in the same way that I hope you will engage one another in this course. And who, after the eruption of the Arab Spring at the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 lead and helped to organize peaceful protests in the round

about square of his own capital of Bahrain, the capital city of Manama. And he too suffered the consequences and in a very serious way. Only recently having been sent to life imprisonment for the simple act of peacefully organizing protests calling for political change in his country. Here's a man who you can see suffers some physical disabilities and yet was subjected to brutal torture by the government and state security operators of Bahrain. Why do individuals like this, living a comfortable, in this case, as a Professor of Engineering at the University in Bahrain, take the risks they do for this abstract concept called democracy?