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<p>The dissertation is an ethnographic study of the role of monitoring standards on
democratic governance reform in El Salvador since the 1992 end of a 12-year civil
war. The study looks at the development and implementation of monitoring and evaluation
models for rule of law, citizen participation and accountability reforms, in order
to understand the impact of standards on the local adaptation and global circulation
of democratic reform programs. Through practices of standardization, law and technology
together construct the expertise that democratic institutions increasingly require
for political participation. The legacy of democratic reform in El Salvador is particularly
important because the country served as a laboratory and poster-child for democratization
models most recently applied to U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.</p><p>In-depth
qualitative study of the development and use of monitoring standards reveals a formalization
of ways of producing and contesting knowledge deemed crucial for political communities
- be they rural hamlets or national economic sectors. As with any institutional form,
certain political possibilities are enabled while others are marginalized or constrained.
However, beside the establishment of dominant frameworks for knowing about social
realities and participating in decision-making governing those realities, monitoring
standards provide means for the mobilization and advocacy of alternative perspectives
and agendas. The dissertation presents a historical account of the institutionalization
of monitoring standards that have become typical components of what international
agencies promote as democratic governance. Ethnographic accounts of how these standards
circulate and are used by governments, NGOs, citizens and social movements illustrate
their ubiquity, flexibility and dynamism - from municipal finance and state decentralization,
to human rights struggles over water privatization, mining, crime and pharmaceuticals.
Research conducted before, during and after the 2009 election of the leftist FMLN
party to the presidency captures shifts in the use of monitoring standards as social
movement activists move into government.</p>
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