Advocacy is an interesting concept.  When you first talk to business organizations about it you undoubtedly hear: “of course we do it, there is nothing to it.”  When you unpack the definition of advocacy and explain to people that it is much more than picking up the phone and calling your contact in a government office to resolve an issue, you get a different reaction: “its too complex, how can we do it?” We usually describe advocacy in two ways – what it is and what it is not.  Advocacy is about changing public policies or public opinion.  It is not about obtaining preferential treatment for one company or solving problems concerning day-to-day business activities of an individual member of a business association. One of the best advocacy strategies is to brand your advocacy campaign in a way that people associate with it, remember it, and understand it.  I was reminded of this as I was giving an example of the successful advocacy campaign in Montenegro to lower a series of corporate and employer taxes.  Montenegro Business Alliance put up billboards all over the city with a simple message (10% tax), including right in front of the Parliament building, so that when legislators came into work and left at the end of the day, they saw the same message over and over again: Makes it kind of difficult to resist the reform when you have this billboard in your face all the time.  Do you know of any other examples of effective advocacy campaign branding?

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Branding An Advocacy Campaign

Last week, I was reading one of Larry Diamond’s articles and came across an interesting point on three paradoxes of modern democracy.  He outlined these paradoxes two decades ago, but they seem as relevant today as they were back then. First: Democracy requires both competition and conflict, but too much conflict leads to instability.  In its original sense, conflict really means disagreement, but the problem if that disagreements can spill over into actual conflicts that lead to instability.  You need to allow conflict, but how do you decide when enough is enough before its too late? Second: Democracy should balance power and governance, making sure that power is not concentrated in one set of hands and is dispersed throughout the system.

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Three Paradoxes of Democracy

Flash Player 9 or higher is required to view the chart Click here to download Flash Player now View the full EQIX chart at Wikinvest Today’s Daily Angle comes from  Wikinvest Wire member  Rob Powell of TelecomRamblings.com. You can read  the full article on Rob’s blog . For a sector that has been on fire for several years now, the colocation and data center space has had relatively few companies available for investment by the general public in the US marketplace

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Filling The Switch & Data Gap

Today’s Daily Angle comes from  Wikinvest Wire member  Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism. You can read  the full article on NakedCapitalism.com The drama of financial regulatory reform is, to a considerable degree, playing right into the industry’s hands.

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You Say You Are a Market Maker? Great, Act Like One

Today’s Daily Angle comes from  Wikinvest Wire member  Saj Karsan of BarelKarsan.com. You can read  the full article on Saj’s blog. Flash Player 9 or higher is required to view the chart Click here to download Flash Player now View the full NUHC chart at Wikinvest When reading through the press releases that most companies issue to announce their quarterly financial results, one can get a pretty good idea of which companies are pleased with their  earnings and which are not.

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Candor Counts

While Mohamed ElBaradei and his National Association for Change (NAC) movement dominated  international and national headlines during the month-long lead-up to their first major protest on May 3, a much smaller, but potentially more significant event passed with very little fanfare and media interest. On March 31,  leaders spanning the entire spectrum of Egypt’s political opposition met and discussed ways to co-operate, including representatives from El Tagammu, a well known, but marginalized socialist political party.

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Egypt’s Opposition: A grand coalition of reformers?

Today’s Daily Angle comes from  Wikinvest Wire member  Tim Iacono of TimIacono.com. You can read  the full article on Tim’s blog . Despite all the hoopla about a new all-time high in U.S

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2009-2010 Gold Bubble Still Just a Baby

A statue of Turkmenbashi (former President Sapamurat Niyazov) in Ashgabat (Photo: http://www.monocle.com/sections/affairs/Web-Articles/Turkmenistan/) In a world that continues to be shaped by growing global economic integration and fragmentation of political power, states resistant to change are finding the status quo more and more difficult to maintain.  While most national leaders acknowledge the realities of economic and political interdependence, some are hesitant to release domestic economic forces due to fears of political change.  Of the many countries that fit these parameters, Turkmenistan provides a fascinating case study.

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A Petroleum Holiday in Ashgabat

Mirlinda Kusari, Executive Director of She-Era, at the CIPE Headquarters in Washington, DC On April 26th and 27th, 250 entrepreneurs from developing and developed nations joined President Obama for the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, DC. Among these business innovators was Mirlinda Kusari Executive Director of She-Era, Kosovo’s first NGO dedicated to women’s entrepreneurship and a former CIPE partner. CIPE took the opportunity to talk to Ms

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A Time for Women in Kosovo

The Fine and Performing Arts Academy at Abraham Lincoln High School Presents You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown Thursday May 13, 2010 7:00 p.m. Abraham Lincoln High School Tickets can be purchased from Mr.

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The Fine and Performing Arts Academy at Abraham Lincoln High School

Local entrepreneurs benefit from the additional tourists that BioAdventure brings to this market (Photo: CIPE) During a recent trip to Peru we had the opportunity to meet Karolo Pérez Alvarado, a participant in the 2008 LiderAcción youth entrepreneurship program . Taking advantage of the LiderAcción courses on business plan development, as well as one-on-one sessions with LiderAcción’s business plan coaches, Karolo and three other students from Tarapoto, San Martín province worked together to develop a business plan for a bio-tourism company called BioAdventure.

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Entrepreneurship is Contagious

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed the dismissal of a defamation action brought against attorneys who had sued the plaintiff company in a federal court class action alleging mortgage fraud. The court held that the plaintiff did not have…

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Defamation Suit Barred By Immunity

The South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed a trial court’s permanent injunction prohibiting the unauthorized practice of law by a graduate of the University of South Dakota School of Law3 who has never been admitted to practice in South Dakota. The…

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Unauthorized Practice Enjoined

Afghan perceptions of the local economy. (CIPE/Charney Research) On May 6, CIPE released the findings of its Survey of Afghan Businessmen conducted in December/January 2010. The sample surveyed over seven hundred businesses across Afghanistan, focusing on the needs and policy views of mostly small businesses in manufacturing, construction, services, and retail.

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Afghan businesses bullish on Afghanistan

The Indiana Supreme Court has held that a law firm defendant did not waive the statute of limitations defense in a legal malpractice case by failing to raise the issue in response to the plaintiff’s motion for partial summary judgment….

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Dissent In "Easy Case"

The New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department struck from its rolls an attorney deemed automatically disbarred as a result of a felony conviction. The court described the circumstances: On January 29, 2009, the respondent entered a plea…

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Golf Course Bribe Leads To Disbarment

The New York Appellate Division for the Third Judicial Department affirmed the denial of a plaintiff’s motion for partial summary judgment in a legal malpractice case. The plaintiff is a former Olympic wrestler who suffered a head injury in T.G….

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Dinner And A Head Injury Leads To Legal Malpractice Suit

Naufel Al-Hassan, the Commercial Counselor of the Embassy of Iraq’s Commercial Office (seated on the far left), and Abdel Razzak Al-Saadi, Chairman of the Iraqi Securities Commission, (seated fourth from the left) at the CIPE headquarters in Washington, DC last week. (Photo: CIPE) On April 28, CIPE hosted Chairman Abdel Razzak Al-Saadi of the Iraqi Securities Commission (ISC), at its headquarters in Washington, DC

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Iraq’s window of opportunity

What makes for a successful approach in providing assistance in the development of strong political parties in transitional democracies?  In the European Union (EU), at least, there are as many answers to this question as there are countries in which to ask it. The Germans, of course, have been at the project the longest – since the establishment of the first major party foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, in 1925.  German foundations are, in many ways, the trailblazers for all who have followed and the model to which successors around the world are compared.  Today, the six German party foundations are a potent force in the development and training of domestic activists (their original and enduring mandate), but also in building democratic institutions abroad

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Building Foundations for Political Parties

An Illinois attorney was suspended for three months in 2005 for making a campaign contribution that did not disclose the true source of the funds.

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Sanction For Post-Suspension Practice Of Law

Just a quick reminder that Emory Law School’s conference, Transactional Education: What’s Next?, is being held on June 4 and June 5. Additional information is available by following the link or contacting Edna Patterson at (404) 727-6506 or edna.patterson@emory.edu. [Jeff…

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Emory Transactional Skills Conference – Reminder!

Several countries in the MENA region — including Morocco , Tunisia , Libya , Jordan , and Syria — have undergone recent government reshuffles with the heads of state changing the composition of ministers in their cabinet. In the MENA context, reshuffles are often presented as a response to internal and external necessities such as the global economic crisis, decentralization, national integrity, intra-party politics, and democratic and economic reform

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Do government reshuffles matter in MENA region?

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had reinstated an award by an arbitrator to a public school teacher dismissed for alleged lack of fluency in English. The facts: An arbitrator found that the school committee of Lowell (school committee) did not…

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No Just Cause To Terminate

The New York Appellate Division has agreed with a trial court order quashing a subpoena issued by the Commission on Judicial Conduct to the then New York County District Attorney. The genesis of the matter is described in the court’s…

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No Fishing

The San Fernando City Performance Pledge, as co-determined between public officials, local civil society, and the private sector in San Fernando. Signed by city employees at an April 7, 2009 ceremony. (Photo: CIPE) Can a scorecard change the world

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Changing the world, one city at a time