CIPE Chairman Greg Lebedev introduces National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman, “The Michelangelo of Democracy”.
The FEDN Secretariat at CIPE was pleased to host the inaugural conference of the Free Enterprise & Democracy Network (FEDN). This virtual, two-day conference served as a complement to the World Movement for Democracy and convened leaders and advocates under the theme of “Towards Successful Transitions: Economic Recovery and Democratic Renewal.” The conference aimed to successfully communicate and publicize the importance of free markets and democracy while explaining their significance to future global development and recovery. The conference showcased private sector and public policy solutions while emphasizing FEDN member initiatives.
You can view all conference recordings on this FEDN YouTube playlist.
Transcript
Welcome to everyone. Just the other day I had a delightful lunch with Carl Gershman, and I always go away smarter than when I arrived. He’s not just a wise man, he’s also a friend – and although mindful that he will shortly step down from his role at the NED I resisted the temptation to say shamelessly nice things about him, and his career, his legacy and his unique contributions to the democracy movement because I didn’t want to give him indigestion . . . and then he’d never have lunch with me again, and that would be a tragedy.
So I saved them for today.
Irving Stone was a brilliant 20th Century American writer who penned the splendid biography of Michelangelo, The Agony and the Ecstasy. And in that story Stone wrote: talent is cheap and dedication is expensive . . . and it could cost you’re your life.
Michelangelo was a rare Renaissance artist who will be forever remembered for his ceiling painting in the Sistine Chapel.
And like Michelangelo, Carl Gershman has been and remains a rare intellectual artist whose dedication to the cause of democracy has consumed much of his adult life . . . and we’re all better because of it.
If we’re lucky, we have jobs we like and families we love and we hope to make a small contribution to our community and society along the way. But Carl gets up every day and not only champions democracy as we know it, but works to expand it wherever possible, explain it to whoever will listen, and most importantly, protect it from the ever-present forces that will suffocate our individuality, silence our speech and steal our liberty. That’s more than a life well lived, and it was and remains Carl’s calling . . . a calling of unique importance to people everywhere and for which we are all very grateful.
The good news is that Carl is our keynote speaker and has been President of the National Endowment for Democracy for almost forty years. During that time he has made an indelible imprint on the very identity of the Endowment, and his guiding hand has produced and influenced not just ideas and articles of consequence, but a host of creative and influential mechanisms and networks that defined the field of democracy assistance, such as the World Movement for Democracy, the Journal of Democracy, our own FEDN and NED’s essential grant-making program.
Carl has been a steadfast supporter of CIPE since its inception. He has been an eloquent spokesman for the role of the business community and of economic reform in cultivating and sustaining democracy. He recognizes that democratic governance and free market economics go hand in hand and has been a powerful voice for the role that only the business community can play in the ongoing process of economic reform.
Carl once wrote:
“Economic reform must proceed in tandem with democratic political change. Political reform by itself is not enough. If democracy does not deliver for the people and continues to serve only the interests of entrenched elites, public disillusionment and anger will reemerge and produce more upheaval. The answer does not reside with government — which will neither produce jobs nor opportunity — the solution lies in fundamental institutional reform and the creativity of private enterprise.”
That lesson is universal, and is as applicable in the United States as it is anywhere in the world. While encouraging CIPE in its distinctive mission to deliver democratic governance and it’s various ingredients, Carl has embraced CIPE’s constituency – the private sector – as part of a broader family of civil society organizations and the global role they can play – each in their own way — to advance freedom of association, ethical business conduct, a plurality of democratic voices, and opportunities for citizens to make choices about the governance of their societies and the lives they lead.
It has been a privilege and a delight to work with Carl. All of us who participate in democracy assistance have benefited from his clear vision, from the constellation of institutions that he has championed within NED and beyond, and from his vigorous defense of democratic freedoms.
Like Michelangelo, Carl has painted the ceiling of the chapel of democracy which inspires all of us, every day to reach for and cherish the freedoms which only a market-oriented democracy can bring.
Carl will be retiring from the Endowment in just a matter of days, and I could not be more privileged to introduce him this morning.