That's a really interesting question, and it's also really important to keep a long perspective when we talk about democratic development. If you think about it in terms of our western society, it was a long, long way between the Magna Carta in 1215 and aboriginals finally getting the vote in Canada in 1961. We always have to keep a long perspective when we're talking about democratic development.
Similarly, when we talk about political party development, there's a story, perhaps apocryphal, about Mobutu, after having been propped up as probably one of the bad examples of how Cold War politics played into African politics. As things began to change and western governments started to say “we want political parties here”, Mr. Mobutu said “If you need political parties you can have political parties”, because of course he could create them.
That's not what you're talking about. You're talking about how a society can offer the conditions that are sufficiently free so people can associate together, can create their own organizations, can structure them, can move ahead. We have to ask ourselves very hard, “Is that a technical problem or is that a much broader problem?” In other words, can we say, “We from Canada are going to help you create your political parties”? We have to think long and hard about all the other elements required for that to happen.
Once there are political parties.... I also should say that probably assistance to political parties and political party formation is one of the biggest overall areas of investment if we add up what the George Soros Foundation is doing, what the German political party foundations are doing, what the National Endowment for Democracy is doing in terms of aiding political party development. There is quite a lot going on.
The question that lurks out there is should there be something with a Canadian flag on it saying here is Canada, here we are to help with political party development? This is an area that is extraordinarily difficult for a country as a bilateral to do, because it is surely a direct involvement in the polity of other countries. So how one goes about structuring that would have to be very, very carefully thought about. But more than that, it's what kind of environment needs to exist so it's possible for people to freely assemble, to think about these things together, to organize their financing, and to move things ahead. It's not a technical question, I would argue.
Jean-Louis has probably much more experience on that.