A former president of the Republic of Liberia will speak about building democratic governments in Africa today at the Student Center.
Dr. Amos Sawyer, who is currently an Associate Director and Research Scholar at Indiana University's Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, will speak at 4 p.m. in the Yuhas Room as part of the International Affairs Lecture Series.
Sawyer served as the president of the Government of National Unity of Liberia, the first of five interim governments in Liberia, from 1990-1994.
The recipient of a doctorate degree from Northwestern University, Sawyer also spent 11 years teaching at the University of Liberia, where he became Dean of the College of Social Sciences.
Sawyer's lecture is hosted by Assistant Provost for International Education Dr. Cyrus Reed and the Central Indiana Committee on Foreign Relations.
Reed said students who attend the lecture will have a rare opportunity to listen to someone who is both a political scientist and a former president.
"Rarely do you get a combination of a practitioner with a professor," Reed said.
Sawyer's research center at Indiana University studies conflict and governance in Africa, doing policy analysis and studying institutions such as government and family systems.
"We want to understand how people develop organizations from the grassroots up," Sawyer said. "It is a way to study how people manage public affairs."
Sawyer, who also spends time consulting with the World Bank and the United Nations, said he plans to speak about the cases of successful democracies in Africa as well as the challenge democracy faces on the continent.
"Africa needs to establish democratic governments beyond just holding elections," he said. "We want to get the African people more involved in government."
Reed said Sawyer's discussion of democracy will include speaking about the importance of developing a structure for transition from a non-democratic government to a democratic one.
"He will probably talk about the issue of comparative democracy," Reed said. "Do all democracies look like the United States? Probably not."
Reed said transitioning to a democracy is a pressing issue in Iraq. It is important to allow the people to participate and still protect minority rights, he said.
"How could you not be interested?" Reed asked. "We're in a presidential election year. If we're following our own politics, then we have to be interested.
"If the student body is intellectually alive, I think it is something that would be hard not to attend."
Sawyer's speech is the second of the lecture series. Reed said the series will continue throughout the semester with anywhere from one to four more speakers.
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