Mastering Information: The Birth of Citizen-Initiated Voter Education in Mongolia

1n the 18 months preceding the parliamentary elections of June 1996 in Mongolia, a variety of nascent nongovernmental organizations began efforts to educate voters. These organizations, nearly all of them run for and by women, sought to inform the voting public about their rights and responsibilities as citizens in this new democracy. The methods and goals of these NGOs varied, as did their ultimate impact. This paper reviews the experience of two of these innovative organizations, demonstrates the potential contributions of NGOs to political transition, and identifies lessons learned regarding NGO efficacy and the challenges of neutrality and credibility. The cases illustrate the variety of means by which NGOs seek to balance and contextualize outside expertise and urban-centered information, reach broad and diversified constituencies, and maintain nonpartisanship in the process. While attribution is difficult, the cases provide promising evidence attesting to NGOs' potential contribution and efficacy in civic education and democratization, even in contexts lacking historical and sometimes cultural democratic traditions.