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The Noble West and the Dirty Rest? Western Democracy Promoters and Illiberal Regional Powers

Cover: Democratization. Democracy Promotion and the Challenges of Illiberal Regional Powers, Special Issue of Democratization

Cover: Democratization. Democracy Promotion and the Challenges of Illiberal Regional Powers, Special Issue of Democratization

Tanja A. Börzel – 2015

This conclusion summarizes the major findings of this special issue and discusses their implications for research on democratization and international democracy promotion. First, I compare the interactions between EU and US democracy promotion and the responses of non-democratic regional powers. In the cases in which Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China chose to pursue a countervailing strategy, I match the reactions of the US and the EU and explore how the combined (inter-)actions of democratic and non-democratic actors have affected efforts at democracy promotion in the target countries. The second part discusses the theoretical implications of these findings and identifies challenges for theory-building. I argue that the literature still has to come to terms with a counter-intuitive finding of this special issue, namely that non-democratic actors can promote democratic change by unintentionally empowering liberal reform coalitions as much as democracy promoters can unwittingly enhance autocracy by stabilizing illiberal incumbent regimes. I conclude with some policy considerations.

Title
The Noble West and the Dirty Rest? Western Democracy Promoters and Illiberal Regional Powers
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Location
Ilford, Essex
Keywords
local actors, democracy,governance theory, meta-governance, Research Project B2
Date
2015
Appeared in
Risse, Thomas/Babayan, Nelli (eds.): Democracy Promotion and the Challenges of Illiberal Regional Powers, Special Issue of Democratization, 22 (3), 519-535.
Language
eng
Type
Text