Blueprints can work reasonably well in the initial stages of democratization, when many locals and Westerners are focused on building or rebuilding specific institutions. Additionally, they seem to work better in those states rapidly democratizing and integrating with the international community, such as the Czech Republic and Poland. But Western NGOs are limited by this blueprint approach in countries undergoing later stages of democratization. The Columbia study documents how much of Eastern Europe and parts of the former Soviet Union are already at, or have long moved beyond, initial institution-building. Now, political environments and local cultures are changing as they are exposed to or incorporate new and different practices.
Blueprints actually compete with local realities.
In Ukraine, Western-funded TV stations crowded out some locally funded ones. For Western NGOs to impact the function of the institutions they helped build, they now must design and implement strategies that respond to the local context by systematically using local and regional expertise in addition to the practitioners. NGOs will have no trouble locating such experts. Given the difficult economic conditions, many locals would welcome the employment during European and American specialists' frequent trips to the regions. The reasons for using local expertise are particularly compelling.