International democracy promotion and democratization in the Middle East and North Africa

ABSTRACT

This article offers an overview of the literature on international democracy promotion in relation to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It draws on the criteria of process tracing to evaluate the mechanisms, processes and episodes of democratization associated with international democracy promotion in the region. It finds that the literature lacks a clear account of how international democracy promotion relates to conditions for democratization and could pay greater attention to the role of media in either supporting or counteracting democracy promotion activities which impact democratization processes in the region.

KEYWORDS:

• EU and US democracy promotion
• foreign policy
• foreign aid
• process tracing
• international broadcasting
• development
• Middle East

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Lucy M. Abbott http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4062-1234

Notes

1 Teti, Thompson, and Noble, “EU Democracy Assistance Discourse in its New Response to a Changing Neighbourhood.”

2 Freyburg and Richter, “Local Actors in the Driver’s Seat.”

3 Hall, “Tracing the Progress of Process Tracing.”

4 Tilly, “Mechanisms in Political Processes,” 27.

5 See note 4 above.

6 Van Hüllen, EU Democracy Promotion and the Arab Spring, 108.

7 Morrison, Nontaxation and Representation, 122.

8 Gerges, Contentious Politics in the Middle East, 8.

9 Cappocia and Ziblatt, “The Historical Turn in Democratization Studies.”

10 Kurki, “Politico-Economic Models of Democracy in Democracy Promotion,” 135.

11 Risse and Babayan, “Democracy Promotion and the Challenges of Illiberal Regional Powers,” 387.

12 Landolt, “USAID, Population Control, and NGO-Led Democratization in Egypt.”

13 Çelenk, “Promoting Democracy in Algeria.”

14 Durac and Cavatorta, “Strengthening Authoritarian Rule Through Democracy Promotion?”; O’Brien, “The Primacy of Political Security”; Powel, “The Stability Syndrome.”

15 Seeburg, “The EU as a Realist Actor in Normative Clothes”; Marinov, “Voter Attitudes when Democracy Promotion Turns Partisan.”

16 Hassan, “Undermining the Transatlantic Democracy Agenda?”; Freyburg and Richter, “Local Actors in the Driver’s Seat.”

17 Whitehead, “Losing ‘the Force’.”

18 Van Hüllen, EU Democracy Promotion and the Arab Spring; Pace, Seeburg, and Cavatorta, “The EU’s Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean”; Teti, “The EU’s First Response to the ‘Arab Spring’.”

19 Scott and Carter, “From Cold War to Arab Spring”; Burnell, “Democratisation in the Middle East and North Africa”; Carapico, Political Aid and Arab Activism.

20 Sharp and Humud, “U.S. Foreign Assistance to the Middle East.”

21 Teti, Thompson, and Noble, “EU Democracy Assistance Discourse in its New Response to a Changing Neighbourhood.”

22 Risse and Babayan, “Democracy Promotion and the Challenges of Illiberal Regional Powers,” 383.

23 Van Hüllen, EU Democracy Promotion and the Arab Spring.

24 Volpi, “Explaining (and Re-explaining) Political Change in the Middle East during the Arab Spring,” 974.

25 Angé, “Is Successful Democracy Promotion Possible?”, 50; Kurki, “Politico-Economic Models of Democracy in Democracy Promotion,” 135.

26 Whitehead, “Losing ‘the Force’,” 227.

27 Freyburg and Richter, “Local Actors in the Driver’s Seat,” 497.

28 Morrison, Nontaxation and Representation, 122.

29 Ibid., 3.

30 Gerges, Contentious Politics in the Middle East, 7.

31 Ibid., 500, 503.

32 Van Hüllen, EU Democracy Promotion and the Arab Spring, 108.

33 Hassan, “Undermining the Transatlantic Democracy Agenda?”

34 Freyburg and Richter, “Local Actors in the Driver’s Seat,” 503.

35 Risse and Babayan, “Democracy Promotion and the Challenges of Illiberal Regional Powers.”