Ralph M. Goldman – författare

With the people of more than one hundred nations living under totalitarian or authoritarian rule, the promotion of democratic development and democratic institutions is likely to be a complex and difficult endeavor for many decades to come. In this collection of papers, eight experienced practitioners and scholars report and analyze what they have learned regarding practical complexities and difficulties. The opening chapter sets current United States' endeavors at promoting democracy into historical context, describing the American sense of mission regarding the promotion of democracy. A second chapter indicates how different authoritarian regimes require different democratizing approaches. Next, an analysis is presented to the consequences--intended and otherwise--of political aid for donor-recipient relationships. Recent efforts, particularly under Foreign Assistance Act programs, are reviewed and assessed, with special attention to the failures. Four chapters are devoted to the role of labor unions, business associations, agrarian workers' organizations, and various types of cooperatives have played in democracy promotion. A more theoretical chapter identifies the intimate connections between freedom of economic associations, political democracy, and the development of thriving market economies. The concluding chapters report on efforts to bring together a formal association of democracies; on the advantages of separating out nongovernmental from governmental programs of political aid; and on the empirical problems of program design and evaluation in the democracy promotion field.

Professor Goldman has contributed articles and books in divers fields of political science. This is a partial collection of his principal published and unpublished journal articles as well as brief references to his principal books.

Volume I focuses on the emergence of transnational political parties. His researches have led Goldman to conclude that transnational parties are the precursors of a world party system and that a world party system will become the institutional alternative to international warfare.

In the near-term prospects of transnational party development, he traces the methods and consequences of international collaborations among national parties and the implications of transnational party developments for the Democratic and Republican parties of the United States. Many of his forecasts came to fruition two or three decades after they were made, hence, the title of this collection: The Future Catches Up.

Professor Goldman has contributed articles and books in divers fields of political science. This is a partial collection of his principal published and unpublished journal articles as well as brief references to his principal books.

Goldmans concern for the pathology of war is dealt with in several articles and books noted in this volume. From Warfare to Party Politics reveals the dynamics of a critical transition from civil war to nonviolent political party competition. His theory of conflict processes draws from sociology. His other books and articles relate to arms control, peacekeeping, and the institutional development of the United Nations.

This timely collection of original papers describes the emerging transnational party system, assesses the historical significance of this development, and recommends policies that may facilitate U.S. participation in this process.