Mike Benz is simply a erstwhile U.S. State Department official, presently serving as the Executive manager of the Foundation For Freedom Online.
His organization deals with the subject of freedom on the Internet, frequently criticizing censorship and overcontrol over the flow of information. In his speeches and analyses, he focuses on issues related to digital policy, media narration control and mechanisms for limiting freedom of expression on the Internet.
Benz is known for criticizing the actions of the U.S. government and global organizations on the manipulation of information in public space. His work frequently focuses on the ways government institutions, NGOs and technological corporations form public debate.
On x.com, Benz reported that NED as an operational USAID arm was expected to push the Donald Tusk governmentto find ways to arrest of leading PiS politiciansthat would aid in “elimination of populism“. These pressures were to take place in the first period of office of the fresh government in Poland.
https://twitter.com/AndrewDalek/status/1889432308467503481
The fragments quoted by Benz come from an essay published in the NED quarterly “The diary of Democracy”. The authors prepare the reader by writing:
– After 1989, the celebrated Russian anti-communist Vladimir Bukowski called for a "second Nuremberg". He claimed the first was for the Nazis, and the second should be for the communists. In Poland, however, members of the erstwhile communist government were not systematically punished. As described by sociologist Bronisław Grabowska in the book Post-communist division, the deficiency of a clear caesium between the communist and post-communist government contributed to divisions in the anti-communist opposition, which became 1 of the key political conflicts after 1989. any politicians, intellectuals and citizens demanded a settlement for the crimes of the communist regime, others praised the peaceful transformation and the policy of reconciliation. The process of accounting for a hard national past, marked by mass violations of human rights, is called "transitional justice" (Transitional justice).
You can then go to the last period:
Now, in late 2023, a second wave of “transitional justice” hovered over Poland. This time, however, the crimes of the populist government overshadow the erstwhile disputes over the settlement of communism. The Law and Justice barely took power in 2015 and had already broken the Constitution of 1997 without publishing the Constitutional Court's judgement to avoid its execution, and casting the court against its own people. The organization could run in 2023 under the slogan of rebuilding state institutions and social programs, but for 8 years government systematically violated the regulation of law.
So if it's fault, there must be punishment...
After 1989 communism was treated as something imposed by the USSR. Pursuing his associates was so of dual importance: punishing crimes and branding “the traitors of his homeland” while symbolizing the breakup of the past. Populism, although it is simply a global phenomenon – from the US to Hungary and Turkey – besides has local roots. The PiS program was based on sovereignty, profoundly rooted in Polish past and national identity. It is so hard to talk present of a "national betrayal" for politicians whose sovereign nation elected in the democratic elections of 2015 and 2019. The fresh government should focus on criminal liability for concrete actions, specified as the illegal appointment of Constitutional Court judges in 2015, the organisation of constitutionally contrary correspondence elections in 2020 or the 2023 visa scandal. Legal pursuit of the leaders of the Law and Justice, including Jarosław Kaczyński, will nevertheless be difficult. The organization has won 7.6 million votes and is inactive the top force in the Sejm, and key institutions – like the Court of State or the ultimate Court – are filled with people of erstwhile power.
But populism is inactive well around the world. If its abuses are not settled, citizens may lose religion in democracy. Poland can become a precedent in Europe – the first EU country to dismantle an established non-liberal democracy and show how to regain the regulation of law.
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is simply a partially autonomous non-governmental organization, founded in 1983 by the United States government, whose aim is to advance democracy worldwide. NED acts as a grant foundation, supporting political, business, trade unions and free marketplace initiatives. Although formally an independent organization, its activities are almost entirely funded by the US Congress, which sparks controversy and accusations of utilizing it to carry out the interests of the United States abroad policy.
One of the key financial and operational partners of NED is United States Agency for global improvement (USAID), an American abroad aid agency. The USAID not only provides funds for the NED, but besides cooperates with it in implementing democratisation programmes in various parts of the world.
The NED uprising was the consequence of president Ronald Reagan's administration policy, which in the 1980s intensified efforts to weaken the influence of the russian Union. In 1982, Reagan proposed in a speech in the British Parliament to make an institution to support democracy through the improvement of free press, trade unions, political parties and academic organizations.
On the basis of the National safety Decision Directive 77, the "Democracy Program" task was created, in which USAID commissioned the American Political Foundation to survey effective methods of supporting democracy. The results of these analyses led to the creation of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as a private, cross-party and non-commercial organization to advance democracy in the world. Since its inception, the NED has been criticized for interfering in the interior affairs of another countries. NED funds come straight from the U.S. national budget, and their distribution is handled by the State Department and USAID.
Several key facts regarding NED funding:
- From 1984 to 1990 NED received $15 to 18 million A year.
- From 1991 to 1993 this amount increased to $25–30 million A year.
- In 1993, US legislature almost liquidated NED fundingbut after the run her supporters' funds were restored.
- W 2009 NED budget was $135,5 millionAlmost all of which came from American government agencies.
- W 2011 Democratic and Republican Institutes (National Democratic Institute and global Republican Institute) donated around $100 million Democratic programs.
This model allows USAID to implement U.S. abroad policy in a way that is little confrontational than direct US government interference.
