The Substance of Eu Democracy Promotion ― Concepts and Cases

This book provides a comprehensive overview and explanation of the substance of the European Union's (EU) democracy promotion policy. With the promotion of democracy becoming an increasingly important element of European Union foreign policy, the contributors argue that the question of what is actually being promoted by the EU in third countries must come to the fore of academic and practical discussions. Dealing with the democratic agenda promoted by the EU, this collection focuses on elections, civil and political rights, horizontal accountability, effective power to govern, stateness, state administrative capacity, civil society, and socio-economic development as components of embedded liberal democracy. The conceptual part of the book includes an analytical framework and critical discussions from law, political economy, critical social theory and governance perspectives. The empirical part contains 11 chapters where the common analytical framework is applied to 22 country cases.

Anne Wetzel is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim, Germany. Her research interests include EU democracy promotion and the EU in international organizations.

Jan Orbie is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Director of the Centre for EU Studies at Ghent University, Belgium. His research focuses on the European Union's external relations.

Together, they have been the leaders of a European Union (EU) Jean Monnet Information and Research Activity on the substance of EU democracy promotion 2011–2012.