ANALYSIS OF TRAINING PROGRAM IMPACT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRATIC VALUES IN TRANSITIONALSOCIETIES.

Western democratic countries, especially the United States, are pouring billions of dollars into educational training programs for people from Eastern Europe, the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union (NIS) and other countries around the world. These training programs bring people to the United States and are intended to impart not only technical skills but to promote democratic values and pro-Western attitudes among the participants who are expected to return to their native countries where they will encourage democratic regimes and market economies. Very little empirical research has been aimed at determining if training programs achieve their specified goals of promoting democratic and free-market attitudes among participants. To address this dearth of research we studied the impact of five different training programs on participants from four different countries (Bosnia / Herzegovina, Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakhstan) during the period between 2000 and 2003. The study uses a panel design with three waves of data collection based on face-to-face interviews with program participants both before and after taking part in the training program. The analysis reveals mixed results. There is little evidence demonstrating that training program participation fosters democratic values generally although it does appear to slightly promote opposition to limiting civil liberties and support for workplace democracy. Partaking in a training program also encouraged the program participants to be more favorable toward the involvement of Western countries in the economy of their own country. The greatest impact of training program participation, however, was that it sharply increased international communication which could lead to a higher level of appreciation for cultural diversity among those who participate in training programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]