Participatory Decentralization in Bolivia: The Genealogy of an Institutional Transplant

Abstract

President Aliev was personally present during the opulent ceremony that marked his country’s admission to the Council of Europe. Traditional music, caviar, and national folklore accompanied the president for the much-awaited introduction to the heart of the “European family.” Since its creation in 1949,2 the Council of Europe’s vocation has been essentially oriented toward a postwar problematic in Western Europe. In the 1990s, the organization opened itself to the postsocialist world and developed programs of democratic transition. The council introduced a political process that redesigned the contours of Europe with 47 member states and produced new political and legal norms defining the conditions of access to the European label. Central and Eastern European countries aiming to join the European Union began their training and familiarization with European norms within this institution. The Council of Europe was nicknamed “the antechamber of the European Union” by some observers because of its role in promoting reforms in the new member states.

Today we are living a historical event! Thanks to its integration in the oldest European organization, the Republic of Azerbaijan is henceforth an integral and indissoluble part of Europe. The admission to the Council of Europe is not only a sign of its recognition as an independent, sovereign, democratic and secular state, but equally a new stage in Azerbaijan’s growth as an equal member of the European family.

Extract from the speech of the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan on his country’s admission to the Council of Europe (Strasbourg, January 25, 2001).¹