2006 Title VIII Award for Distinguished Policy Paper on Eastern Europe
The 2006 Title VIII Award for Distinguished Policy Paper on Eastern Europe is for an outstanding policy paper on East European Affairs by a graduate student or recent Master’s or PhD graduate.
Michael Powell
The 2006 Title VIII Award for Distinguished Policy Paper on Eastern Europe was awarded to Michael Powell, who received his Ph.D. from Rice University in Spring 2006 for the essay “NGO Networking and the Passage of a Transparency Initiative in Poland.”
The winning policy paper on East European affairs for 2006 addresses the U.S. national interests of democracy promotion and support for the rule of law. Michael Powell takes us through the process of development and adoption of Poland’s FOI, or Freedom of Information, law and explains the underlying goals and strategies of the “elite political coalitions” and “institutional nomads” who expertly used their informal networks to ensure the passage of this law. Powell gained critical contextual expertise by conducting extensive field research in Poland. This enabled him to describe in detail the composition of the informal networks involved in the campaign to pass the law and the strategies the players used. He describes the cultural factors involved in the case of Poland, what it takes to spark interest, and why “operationalizing networks of influence” worked. He also points out inherent flaws in the “transitory coalition model,” and thus the challenges for Poland as it struggles towards enduring change.
From a policy perspective, Powell outlines early in the paper the key geopolitical implications for Poland. He states that “Poland’s FOI law is a local expression of a global phenomenon,” and correctly notes that transparency and anti-corruption measures are requirements for accession to the EU. Perhaps most importantly, this paper provides practical guidance for advancing democratic values in the region by describing a process that could be adapted in other Southeast European countries to address similar transparency challenges in their quest for EU membership.
