The Long-Term Goal of Deepening Democracy

In November 2007, MCC published a working paper on the link between economic development and democracy. The paper describes how MCC’s approach to reducing poverty—creating incentives for reform and respecting existing domestic actors and processes—contributes to the long-term deepening of already existing democratic institutions.

Deepening democracy through compact development and implementation

MCC’s compacts are designed to reduce poverty through economic growth, but they also contribute to strengthening democratic institutions and processes in three important ways:

• Partner countries must maintain a meaningful, public consultative process throughout the development of the compact and its implementation.
• Compact programs must adhere to domestic legal or constitutional requirements, such as ratification of the compact, or notification to the legislature when appropriate, and funds received pursuant to the compact must be reflected in the national budget.
• Compact implementation must be transparent.

Building blocks of MCC’s approach to democracy

• Founded firmly in core principles
• Built on the work of theinternational democracy community
• Buttressed by research on the economic role of institutions