After decades of poor public services, increasing national debt, and pervasive corruption, the Lebanese government’s decision to impose new taxes in October 2019 sparked nation-wide protests. While the protests led to the resignation of prime minister Saad Hariri and his government, it took nearly two years and three attempts to form a new government, now headed by Prime Minister Najib Mikati, as political leaders were unable to reach consensus on a cabinet.

Since early 2011, a cross-section of Jordanian activists and political groups has organized regular protests demanding change to the country’s political and economic landscape. Citizen activists, political parties, and opposition movements have called for an end to corruption, opening up political space, empowering elected officials, and encouraging greater political competition.

Since 2003, NDI has supported the efforts of Bahrainis across the political divide to develop a political process and institutions that can earn the confidence of the Bahraini people. Specifically, NDI has supported citizen election observation, trained members of parliament and parliamentary staff, worked with civil society and government officials, and engaged youth to encourage political participation.

During the wave of popular protests that swept across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, Algeria largely avoided the violence and social upheaval seen elsewhere in the region. However, following President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s February 2019 announcement of his intention to run for a fifth consecutive term in Algeria’s planned presidential elections, the country saw a mass public uprising.

Since gaining independence in 1960, Mauritania’s political development has been stunted by years of highly centralized and often turbulent rule characterized by frequent coups.  A coup in 2008  triggered political stalemate, and parliamentary and presidential elections in 2013 and 2014, boycotted d by the country’s main opposition groups, did little to ease the country’s long-simmering tension.

Present in Slovakia since 1993, NDI initially supported community organizing in towns across the country, which helped to galvanize grassroots voter participation and citizen-based election observation in landmark 1998 elections. These elections in turn propelled Slovakia’s democratic development, economic transformation, and led to European Union and NATO membership. NDI helped the Slovak National Assembly launch a legislative internship program and constituency outreach service, and worked with the country’s leading political parties to develop youth branches.

The peaceful removal of Slobodan Milosevic from power in 2000 put Serbia on a path toward democratic rule and European integration. The ensuing years have seen important progress in establishing a competitive multiparty system and strengthening civil society. Serbia is a candidate for European Union membership, although infringements on independent media, insufficient parliamentary oversight and legislative scrutiny, and an uneven record on equal rights for minority groups remain areas of concern.

Romania has a constitutionally defined system of separation of institutional powers, a competitive multiparty system, a robust civil society, and a legal framework for minority rights protection and political enfranchisement. Romania is a member of both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).  

Poland took quickly to democratic governance following the overthrow of communism in 1989, thanks in large part to grassroots organizing practices burnished in the Solidarity movement of the 1980s, which helped to create a robust civil society. As a result, post-1989 governing institutions and political processes adhered to a constitutional system of checks and balances and a predictable and stable political system that allowed Poland to join NATO and the European Union.

Montenegro achieved formal independence through a peaceful referendum in 2006, gained NATO membership in 2017, and is currently a candidate for European Union membership. Montenegro has been ruled by one party for the past 20 years, however, and this centralization of power has created challenges in relations between the government and the opposition, electoral competition, the rule of law and independent media.