Steven D. Roper

Myanmar

The following page was created after I visited Myanmar on a U.S. Department of State Speaker's Program. At the request of the Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Embassy, I held a series of meetings with various groups in order to discuss issues related to the 17 May 2004 Constitutional Convention. The purpose of these meetings was to stress institutional and democratic values to consider when crafting a constitution. These meetings also served as a means for Embassy personnel and I to gain insights into the issues of concern for the various sectors of society. Opposition leaders, ethnic groups and legal scholars interested in the process of drafting a constitution attended the meetings. I have created this page to provide these groups links to various pages that will assist them in their constitutional discussions. This page also contains links for scholars interested in Myanmar. I want to thank Eric Barboriak at the Embassy for providing me the 104 points. This page is my own endeavor and does not reflect the policy of the U.S. government. The document on the constitutional convention and the journal articles require Adobe Acrobat. Click here  for a free copy of the reader.

Data on Myanmar:
 

  • The UN maintains a list of basic social indicators.
  • The World Bank maintains a list of basic social indicators by category and country.
  • The IMF country index has economic information on all IMF members.
  • Transparency International monitors corruption world-wide.
  • The Freedom House country ratings are available.
  • Reports of the International crisis group.
  • The CIA Fact Book contains various political and economic information.


    • Documents Related to the Constitutional Convention:
     

  • Here are the 104 points produced at the previous convention in 1996.


    • Links for Individuals Working on Constitutions:
     

  • The University of Richmond maintains an excellent constitution data base.
  • The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems is a program of cross-national research among election studies conducted in over fifty countries.
  • The Lijphart elections archive contains election results.
  • Here is election information worldwide.
  • Parties and elections home page has great sources of election data.
  • The IFES maintains an election calendar that lists upcoming elections around the world.
  • The Proportional Representation Society of Australia has extensive information and links to other election-related sites.
  • The proportional representation library has bibliographic and other information on PR.
  • Constitution Society: Unity and Federalism.


    • Articles on Elections and Presidential and Parliamentary Forms of Government:
     

  • Andre Blais. 1988. “The Classification of Electoral Systems.” European Journal of Political Research 16:99-110.
  • Kent Eaton. 2000. “Parliamentarism Versus Presidentialism in the Policy Arena.” Comparative Politics 32 (April):355-76.
  • Donald L. Horowitz. 1990. “Comparing Democratic Systems.” Journal of Democracy 1 (Fall): 73-9.
  • Seymour Martin Lipset. 1990. “The Centrality of Political Culture.” Journal of Democracy 1 (Fall):80-3.
  • Matthew Soberg Shugart, and Scott Mainwaring. 1997. “Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America: Rethinking the Terms of the Debate.” In Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America, ed. Scott Mainwaring, and Matthew Soberg Shugart. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


    • Photos of My Visit:

    Here are some photos from a public lecture that I gave at the U.S. Embassy's American Center on 14 May 2004. The title of the lecture was “Constitutions as an Instrument of Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies?”

  • Photo1, Photo2, Photo3, and Photo4