One Size Does Not Fit All: An Analysis of US and EU Democracy Promotion in the Western Balkans

Yıl 2018, Cilt: 11 Sayı: 22, 15 - 39, 10.06.2018

Murat Önsoy Gürol Baba

https://doi.org/10.19060/gav.437759

Cited By: 1

Öz

In the post-Cold War era, with democratic peace theory on the rise, efforts to promote democracy around

the world have flourished. Western and Western democratic values-oriented states in particular have

acted on the belief that democracy promotion would contribute to world peace. Yet this process is not as

utopian as described; it is also highly contingent, with no single prescription for success nor common

idea of what the end result should look like. This study elaborates the problematic aspects of democracy

promotion by examining the case of US and EU democracy promotion in the Western Balkans. The

problems uncovered in this analysis fall into three categories: 1) those stemming from the very nature of

democracy promotion as an exercise, 2) those specific to the promoters of democracy and 3) those relating

to the particular characteristics or circumstances of the target state or region. Based on the analysis, this

study concludes that such problems will continue to arise so long as the promoters of democracy continue

to approach the process monolithically, without sensitivity to, and synchronization with, the cultural and

political realities on the ground in target states.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Democracy Promotion, Democratization, the United States (US), the European Union (EU)

Kaynakça

• BALFOUR, Rosa-Corina Stratulat, “The Democratic Transformation of the Balkans” EPC ISSUE PAPER NO. 66. 2011. http://www.epc.eu/documents/ uploads/pub_1363_the_democratic_transformation_of_the_balkans.pdf accessed on 27.10.2014
• BECHEV Dimitar - Svetlozar Andreev, “Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Aspects of the EU Institution-Building Strategies “in the Western Balkans, Occasional PaperNo. 3/05, South East European Studies Programme, European Studies Centre, University of Oxford, 2005. BEICHELT, Timm, “The Research Field of Democracy Promotion”, Living Reviews in Democracy 3, 2012. BLOMBERG, Franziska, “The ‘Do-No-Harm’ Debate in External Democracy Promotion”, Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe 11, No. 3, 2012, p. 8-39. BÖRZEL, Tanja A.-Thomas Risse, “One Size Fits All! EU Policies for the Promotion of Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law,” Prepared for the Workshop on Democracy Promotion, Oct. 4–5, 2004, Center for Development, Democracy, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University. BÖRZEL, Tanja A. - Risse, Thomas, “Venus Approaching Mars? The EU as an Emerging Civilian World Power, Berlin Working Paper on European Integration No. 11, Frei University Berlin, 2009. BÖRZEL, Tanja A., When Europeanization Hits Limited Statehood: The Western Balkans as a Test Case for the Transformative Power of Europe, KFG Working Paper Series, No. 30 September 2011. BRINKLEY, Douglas, “Democratic Enlargement: The Clinton Doctrine”, Foreign Policy 106, 1997, pp. 110–127. BROK, Elmar, “Introductory remarks: the European Union and democracy promotion” Worldwide promotion of democracy: challenges, role and strategy of the European Union Brussels 5–6 June 2007. BROWN, Keith, Evaluating Intervention: Knowledge production and democracy promotion in the Western Balkans, Proposal (with budget omitted) submitted to NCEEER grant competition, 2006. BROWN, Keith, “Do We Know How Yet: Insider Perspectives on International Democracy Promotion in the Western Balkans”, the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, TITLE VIII PROGRAM, January 26, 2009. CAMPBELL, David, National Deconstruction: Violence, Identity, and Justice in Bosnia, University of Minnesota Press, 1998. CHANDLER, David, “Promoting Democratic Norms? Social Constructivism and the ‘Subjective’ Limits to Liberalism”, Democratization, 20, No. 2: 2013, pp. 215-239. CORCORAN, Paul E., “The Limits of Democratic Theory”. in Democratic Theory and Practice, ed. Graeme Duncan. CUP, Cambridge, 1983, p. 13-25. CAROTHERS, Thomas, “The End of the Transition Paradigm”, Journal of Democracy 13, No. 1, 2002, p.5-21. CAROTHERS, Thomas, “Democracy Assistance: The Question of Strategy” Democratization 4, No. 3, 1997, p. 121-122. CAROTHERS, Thomas, Aiding Democracy Abroad, the Learning Curve. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999.