9507486 Olson With partial funding from the National Science Foundation, the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, will establish a Central European Parliamentary Documents Center that will work with institutional counterparts and legislative scholars in eleven countries of Central and Eastern Europe to create a repository of archival materials issued by the newly democratized parliaments of these countries. This effort will be headed by Dr. David Olson along with co-investigators, Dr. William Crowther and Dr. Maurice Simon. The rationale for creating this Center is based on the premise that: 1) Such parliaments can serve as valuable cases for studying cross-national processes of democratization and 2) the essential documentary records of these institutions are resources that otherwise may not be preserved, even by the parliaments that publish them. The Greensboro Center's total collection will be made available for future use by researchers and scholars interested in the post-Communist era of legislative institution building in Central and Eastern Europe. The materials to be collected at the Center feature membership directories, sessional statistical reports, roll call reports, election statistical reports, and related private publications and newspaper articles. By drawing upon well established contacts in each country, the Center will continue its collection and archiving of new working documents as they are issued. Overall, the Center's collection is expected to serve as a key national resource for research on newly democratized parliaments, their institutionalization, and other relevant aspects of the transition processes they affect. Creation of this repository for archival data at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, complements the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling leading experts in the United States and Eastern Europe to combine talents and pool research resources in area of strong mutual interest a nd competence. ***
