Democracy for export: the Europeanisation of electoral laws in the East European neighbourhood

Abstract

This paper argues that democracy promotion is not a “European Union (EU)-owned” policy and that the rule determinacy as well as the effective “anchoring” of democratic practices at the domestic level are a function of broader social structures and multiple actors at the European and domestic levels. The essay applies the international practices perspective on the relations of the European democracy promoters with the East European neighbours (EEN) and examines how the combined inter-institutional effort of the EU, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe affects the success of the pan-European democratic practices and policy instruments in the EEN electoral reforms. The analysis reveals that the domestic promotion of electoral reforms increases as a result of the common European democratic policy. Yet, when European institutions lack strong “sticks and carrots” and the EEN party systems are rather weak, the final Europeanisation outcomes depend on the domestic contextual factors.

Keywords:

• European neighbourhood policy
• Europeanisation
• elections
• policy instruments
• social structures
• practices perspective

Notes

During the researched time-period these countries seemed to be the only EU outsiders that could be regarded as control cases for the presence and the strength of European influence on domestic transformations (Haverland 2006).

The APs refer in this respect to pluralism, freedom of speech and media, respect of minority rights, non-discrimination on grounds of gender and on political, religious and ethnic views.

As the APs were signed for a period of three years in the case of Ukraine and Moldova, starting with 2005, and for six years in the case of Georgia, starting with 2006, for comparative reasons the period of analysis is limited for three years for all three countries.

All the three examined countries are members of the CoE.

The Conventions drafted for the Commonwealth of Independent States (Venice Commission 2006a) and by the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO) (2002).

See the introductory article of this special issue for a more detailed explanation of this typology (Korosteleva, Natorski, and Simao 2013, 9).

Particularly Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR (2006a, 2006b, 2007, 2009) and Vogel (2007).

The European integration objective acted as a unifying power of governing and opposition parties, leading to the adoption by Moldovan legislature of The Declaration on Political Partnership (March 2005) with the aim of promoting pro-European reforms (see more in Timuş 2009).

Ukrainian parliamentary elections from 2006 and 2007, Georgian presidential and parliamentary elections from 2008, Moldovan local elections from 2005 and parliamentary elections from 2009.

The pre-term elections from September were the result of the political crisis emerged in the spring of 2007 between the ruling coalition and the President, stemming from the lack of clarity in the constitutional prerogatives between the President and the government.

United National Movement.