important role in supporting such efforts in the past and has considerable expertise in this area.  Activities

to consider might include specific advisory activities as well as training and technical support for judges.

Such activities could involve prestigious public and private sector law faculties with reputations for

political neutrality, as well as institutions such as the 

Defensoria del Pueblo

 and the 

Comision Andina de

Juristas

.  Another promising area would be the training of elected regional justices of the peace, an

activity currently being undertaken by the 

Instituto de Defensa Legal

 and other NGOs.

2.

Civil and Political Society

Problem

:

Weak parties and national level interest associations do not effectively aggregate and

represent the diverse interests of the citizenry in the political sphere, and do not serve as adequate

counterweights to Executive power

.  In Peru today there is a notable lack of effective, intermediary

organizations capable of aggregating interests, building broad policy consensus, holding public

authorities accountable, and proposing viable governance alternatives.  In most democracies these tasks

are assumed by political parties, but also by business and labor associations, NGO networks and other

national level nonprofit organizations.  Together we call this stratum  political society , to distinguish it

within the broader array of particular and grassroots organizations that comprise the civil society sphere.

Constraints

: 

While traditional political parties are largely discredited, new independent movements have

few incentives to define clear doctrines and programs, or to build broader social bases between elections.

This is in part because of their extremely personalist nature and also due to the ways in which current

electoral rules and representation criteria structure their incentives.  Meanwhile, although some civil

society organizations are the leading domestic actors in the effort to strengthen democracy and protect

human rights, the nonprofit sector as a whole is characterized by considerable fragmentation as well as

important resource limitations.

Opportunities

: 

Within the NGO community there are increased efforts to establish broader networks and

national alliances in order to achieve common objectives.  The organizations dedicated to human rights

and democracy have made the most progress in this regard (e.g., the Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos

Humanos, PROMUJER, and the NGOs working together on electoral monitoring and civic education).

Such aggregating efforts are also evident among business associations, in the university community, and

among research and action organizations in the anti poverty and social policy sphere.

There is also a growing perception among diverse sectors of civil society that there is a need to recreate

parties and strengthen the party system.  Despite widespread indignation with the recent electoral

process, and the persistence of President Fujimori's anti party discourse, 

the public does not seem to

want to do away with parties

; rather, it wants them to be more effective and inclusive. This is a concern

shared by NGOs, the churches, and a diversity of other civil society organizations, because the weakness

of political parties places greater burdens on each of them than they can assume.

Recommendations:

 The team believes that it is premature to engage in traditional party strengthening or

leadership development activities, which might simply perpetuate transitory political movements lacking

a firm commitment to democratic norms and values.  Nonetheless, the Team recommends that this sphere

of political society be given higher priority, with a possible two track approach; (1) working with civil

society actors that can play this intermediary role, and (2) seeking ways to advance the process of party

strengthening directly.

Within this framework, we suggest the following activities:

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