It is no solution, however, to withdraw support on the grounds that it is too expensive for the recipient country to sustain. One discussant noted how in the United States over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, voluntary associations have shifted their base from grass- roots membership to national headquarters. He suggested that this development is perhaps reflected in the approaches to civil-society creation elsewhere in the world. In both cases, Western donors should recognize that their role is not to create but to assist in creating a viable democracy. Several participants stressed the continuing need to fund elections, political parties, and grassroots efforts at cultivating a civil society.
Elections spur democratic development well beyond the ballot box.
Opposition parties provide a vital counterweight to the views of the ruling party and help voice the concerns of a country's various constituencies. Similarly, NGOs play an essential role in educating citizens about the rights and responsibilities of a democratic nation. From this data World Audit has produced a World Democracy league table ranked by the criteria used by those organisations. It is resource forcomparing the level of democracy among the nations of the world. The main goal of the project is to stop the war in the North Caucasus and to observe the human rights in the conflict region.