Ideas and Interests: European Democracy Aid and the Democracy-Security Dilemma, 1990-2010

Year 2020, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 61 - 81, 20.12.2019

James M. Scott Brandy Jolliff Scott

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.541235

Abstract

Since
the end of the Cold War, advanced democracies have enacted explicit strategies
of democracy promotion by providing assistance to governments, political
parties, and other non-governmental groups and organizations all over the
world. This paper examines the factors shaping European Union democracy aid allocation
decisions from 1990-2010, weighing the relative impact of ideational concerns
(regime type, human rights) and self-interests (political, security, economic).
We argue that EU democracy aid reflects a “democracy-security dilemma” as the
EU balances ideational reasons for promoting democracy with concerns over
political and economic relationships, regional stability, and security. We test
our hypotheses with a series of random effects, generalized least squares and
Heckman selection models, which provide support for our argument. The paper
concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the
impact and explanation of EU democracy promotion policies.

Keywords

democracy aid, foreign policy, European Union

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