SFI Professor Paula Sabloff writes about her anthropological research to understand Mongolians' conception of and desire for democracy in a Santa Fe New Mexican article.
"It was in Mongolia where I discovered, after years of anthropological research and more than 1,200 interviews, that what Americans think of as democracy is not quite the same thing as what most Mongolians have in mind," she writes..."People – Mongolians in this case – prize the perhaps universal values of dignity, self-determination, and equality, which fit democratic principles better than totalitarian governance, and so they favor democratic principles. However, they want to practice democracy their own way, a way that makes sense given their history and culture, their current circumstances, and their future prospects."
Her recent book – Does Everyone Want Democracy? Insights from Mongolia (Left Coast Press, 2013) – focuses on Mongolians’ changing ideas of democracy and capitalism as they leave behind socialism.
Read the article in the Santa Fe New Mexican (June 3, 2013)
Read the article in The Daily Beast (June 12, 2013)
Read a review of Sabloff's book in the University of British Columbia's "Mongolia Focus" (May 25, 2013)