The Drugs, Security and Democracy (DSD) Program strives to create a stronger, more systematized knowledge base on drugs in Latin America and the Caribbean; to build capacity—both institutional and individual—by supporting relevant research; and to encourage policy-relevant, evidence-based research that informs the development of alternatives to present-day drug policies in the region and beyond.
The program supports research on drugs, including their relationship to citizen security and democratic governance, across a variety of disciplines—anthropology, criminology, economics, history, international relations, journalism, legal studies, political science, public health, public policy, sociology, and other related fields. The program seeks to foster a global interdisciplinary network of researchers engaged with drug policy, committed to policy-relevant outcomes, and who can communicate their findings to relevant audiences.
The DSD Program achieves its goals through various activities, including a fellowship competition, short-term targeted research projects, thematic workshops, and partnerships with relevant stakeholders in the field of drugs.
DSD Program is funded by the Open Society Foundations.
The eight articles that compose this series offer a multidisciplinary view of therapeutic communities in Brazil, expanding and deepening the existing literature and offering powerful contributions to a substantive analysis of therapeutic communities as instruments of public policy.
Our Work
This collaboration between SSRC’s Anxieties of Democracy (AOD) and Drugs, Security and Democracy (DSD) programs seeks to support research that (i) deepens understanding of key challenges such as democratic erosion and authoritarian drift; political inequalities, including voter suppression; political mobilization and participation of women and minorities; and corruption and the rule of law; and (ii) employs a comparative perspective or is relevant to a comparative dialogue on the sources of and solutions to democratic anxieties in the Americas.
Over the last generation, activists, journalists, and researchers working in Latin America have increasingly faced the challenge of operating in areas affected by chronic police and non-state violence.
How can research help inform better drug policies? The Drugs, Security and Democracy (DSD) Program has sought to answer this question since its inception. Based on a firm belief that the development of alternatives to present-day drug policies should be deeply rooted in evidence, the DSD Program has so far supported around eighty research projects
Completed
O Programa Drogas, Segurança e Democracia (DSD) do Social Science Research Council apoia pesquisas sobre drogas na América Latina e no Caribe com o propósito de produzir conhecimento baseado em evidência para contribuir com a formulação de políticas públicas sobre drogas na região e no mundo.
Completed
The Drugs, Security and Democracy (DSD) Program fellowship is designed to support short-term research that contributes to the literature on drugs in Latin America and the Caribbean on topics and countries that are central to drug policy discussions in the region and beyond.
