Democracy Governance Research Design — Activity Summary

On behalf of USAID, IRIS contracted the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) to develop a methodological and analytical strategy for a multiyear research effort aimed at evaluating the impact of USAID Democratic Governance programs.

The project, known as the Sector Operational Research Agenda (SORA), made concrete recommendations regarding the administrative, management, personnel, budget and level of effort needed to sustain a research agenda. Additionally, SSRC reviewed and assessed past, selected USAID democracy and governance program evaluations.

Lastly, SSRC convened and provided support to a “Democratization Technical Advisory Board,” consisting of outside experts in social science methodology, research and methods. This Advisory Board was charged with monitoring the research to ensure its adherence to high technical standards.

Members of the advisory board included Robert Bates of Harvard University, Thomas D. Cook of Northwestern University, Charles Kurzman of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Gail Lecce of USAID, Dietrich Rueschemeyer of Brown University, Mitchell A. Seligson of the University of Pittsburgh, Brian Silver of Michigan State University and John Tirman of SSRC.

The results of this activity were the “Review of USAID Evaluations on Democracy and Governance” and the “Research Design to Evaluate the Impact of USAID Democracy and Governance Programs,” both by Kenneth Bollen, Pamela Paxton and Rumi Morishima and the “Evaluation Plan for USAID Democracy and Governance Activities,” by John Tirman.