Richard Youngs - The Puzzle of Non-Western Democracy

T hese are uncertain and challenging times for international democracy support and democratic activism more generally. A daunting, indeed often bewildering array of political developments around the worldsuch as the startling disintegration of the Arab Spring into a series of civil wars and the rise of authoritarian capitalism as a challenge to Western liberal democracyare prompting democracy supporters to question their foundational assumptions from decades past. The belief, for example, that democracy is on a long-term path of expansion has been replaced by the reality of democratic stagnation or even recession. Confidence that democracy supporters have a clear idea of how democratization happens and how they can best facilitate it has given way to doubts and debates. And the legitimacy of democratic societies working across borders to help other societies become more democratic is under attack from dozens of governments that are striking out harshly against international backing for civil society and other basic elements of democracy support.

In this context it is clear that all of the major assumptions underlying international democracy support must be examined and reformulated in a searching, open-minded way if the enterprise is to chart a course in the new political landscape. One issue that merits particular scrutiny is the model or conception of democracy that Western democracy supporters are trying to help advance in the world. Western policymakers and aid practitioners have for years insisted that they know there is not a single model of democracy and that they do not seek to impose a Western conception on others. In practice, however, they have not displayed much openness nor devoted much detailed thought to ideas about democracy coming from outside the West. Yet today, calls for alternative, non-Western forms of democracy are proliferating in societies outside the West. And deep-reaching debates over how democracy could or should be renovated are proliferating within established Western democracies.

In this probing, thought-provoking book, Richard Youngs takes a clear-eyed look at this idea of non-Western democracy. He recognizes the need for democratic diversity and renovationnot just outside the West but within the West as well. Yet at the same time, he is profoundly wary of the tendency of some political actors to invoke the appealing but vague notion of non-Western democracy as a cover for antidemocratic ideas and practices. He presses hard on the question of whether non-Western democracy is in fact a viable concept at all, dissecting examples of democratic variation in Asia, Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and elsewhere. He works toward a sophisticated synthesis that extracts critical elements of the drive for alternatives to Western liberal democracy and fuses them into a framework for thinking about democratic variation that preserves essential democratic principles. And from this ground he proceeds to consider the practical implications of a greater openness to such variation for international democracy support organizations and activists.

In short, this is a book that embodies the characteristics of Richard Youngss many writings that have established his reputation as an invaluable thinker on democracy support and democracy itselfa sweeping scope of insights from a notably wide array of cases, the blending of conceptual rigor with practical application, and the pairing of openness to new ideas with tough skepticism about political dogmas and disguises. The book is a significant addition to the work of the Carnegie Endowments Democracy and Rule of Law Program, which is addressing the changed landscape for international democracy support and seeking to contribute useful ideas that will help democracy activists in all parts of the world effectively address the many challenges they now confront.

Thomas Carothers
Vice President for Studies
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

C urrent global trends in democracy reveal immense complexity. What had appeared to be a somewhat standard path to democratization now looks like the road less traveled and not the way to the future. What had looked like a standard end product of liberal democracy is now challenged as much as it is embraced. And it is challenged not only by autocratic regimes but also by genuine democrats. For analysts, diplomats, aid practitioners, and civil society activists alike, there is a need to rethinkeven to go back to basics.

The rich worlds democratic challenges no longer look so different from those of emerging or developing nations. The international agenda of extending, protecting, and deepening democracy was one that habitually pointed out there, to the world beyond the West. Research on this agenda was about the how of democratic advancement, not about the what. The focus was on how different kinds of tactics might dislodge autocrats; and it was on how much political will Western governments really invested behind their prodemocracy rhetoric, especially when it came to confronting authoritarian allies. The agenda was much less about the form of democracy that people wanted. Democracy itself was not up for debate in any fundamental way. In the international support agenda, reflection on democracy was object, not subject.

In many regions around the world, politicians, activists, and others struggle to put in place more open government, and many still want international democracy support. Yet the latter is not seen as quite the unquestioningly benign phenomenon that it was. Even if there were always critics offstageright and leftdemocracy support did not face the profundity of doubt that afflicts it today. It is now an enterprise that has to make more strenuous efforts to justify itself than it did in the 1990s and at the beginning of this century.