Democracy Promotion and
the Challenges of Illiberal
Regional Powers
This book examines Western efforts at democracy promotion, reactions by illiberal challengers and regional powers, and political and societal conditions in target states. It is argued that Western powers are not unequivocally committed to the promotion of democracy and human rights, while non-democratic regional powers cannot simply be described as autocracy supporters. This volume examines in detail the challenges by three illiberal regional powers China, Russia and Saudi Arabia to Western (US and EU) efforts at democracy promotion. The contributions specifically analyse their actions in Ethiopia and Angola in the case of China, Georgia and Ukraine in the case of Russia, and Tunisia in the case of Saudi Arabia. Democratic powers such as the US or the EU usually prefer stability over human rights and democracy. If democratic movements threaten stability in a region, neither the US nor the EU supports them. As to illiberal powers, they are generally not that different from their democratic counterparts. They also prefer stability over turmoil. Neither Russia nor China nor Saudi Arabia explicitly promote autocracy. Instead, they seek to suppress democratic movements in their periphery the minute these groups threaten their security interests or are perceived to endanger their regime survival.
This book was previously published as a special issue of Democratization.
Nelli Babayan is a Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, DC and Associate Fellow at the Center for Transnational Studies, Foreign and Security Policy, Freie Universitt Berlin. She is the author of Democratic Transformation and Obstruction: EU, US and Russia in the South Caucasus (Routledge, 2015).
Thomas Risse is Professor of International Relations at the Otto-Suhr Institute of Political Science, Freie Universitt Berlin. His latest publications include A Community of Europeans? Transnational Identities and Public Spheres (Cornell University Press, 2010) and European Public Spheres: Politics Is Back (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Democratization Special Issues
Series editors: Jeffrey Haynes, London Metropolitan University, UK Aurel Croissant, University of Heidelberg, Germany
The journal, Democratization, emerged in 1994, during the third wave of democracy, a period which saw democratic transformation of dozens of regimes around the world. Over the last decade or so, the journal has published a number of special issues as books, each of which has focused upon cutting edge issues linked to democratization. Collectively, they underline the capacity of democratization to induce debate, uncertainty, and perhaps progress towards better forms of politics, focused on the achievement of the democratic aspirations of men and women everywhere.
Democracy Promotion and the Challenges of Illiberal Regional Powers
Edited by Nelli Babayan and Thomas Risse
Religiously Oriented Parties and Democratization
Edited by Luca Ozzano and Francesco Cavatorta
Religion and Political Change in the Modern World
Edited by Jeffrey Haynes
Comparing Autocracies in the Early Twenty-first Century
Two-volume set:
1. Unpacking Autocracies Explaining Similarity and Difference
2. The Performance and Persistence of Autocracies
Edited by Aurel Croissant, Steffen Kailitz, Patrick Koellner and Stefan Wurster
Twenty Years of Studying Democratization
Three-volume set:
1. Democratic Transition and Consolidation
2. Democratization, Democracy and Authoritarian Continuity
3. Building Blocks of Democracy
Edited by Aurel Croissant and Jeffrey Haynes
Political Opposition in Sub-Saharan Africa
Edited by Elliott Green, Johanna Sderstrm and Emil Uddhammar
Conflicting Objectives in Democracy Promotion
Do All Good Things Go Together?
Edited by Julia Leininger, Sonja Grimm and Tina Freyburg
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED BOOKS FROM DEMOCRATIZATION
Coloured Revolutions and Authoritarian Reactions
Edited by Evgeny Finkel and Yitzhak M. Brudny
Ethnic Party Bans in Africa
Edited by Matthijs Bogaards, Matthias Basedau and Christof Hartmann
Democracy Promotion in the EUs Neighbourhood
From Leverage to Governance?
Edited by Sandra Lavenex and Frank Schimmelfennig
Democratization in Africa: Challenges and Prospects
Edited by Gordon Crawford and Gabrielle Lynch
Democracy Promotion and the Colour Revolutions
Edited by Susan Stewart
Promoting Party Politics in Emerging Democracies
Edited by Peter Burnell and Andre W. M. Gerrits
Democracy and Violence
Global Debates and Local Challenges
Edited by John Schwarzmantel and Hendrik Jan Kraetzschmar
Religion and Democratizations
Edited by Jeffrey Haynes
The European Unions Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean
Edited by Michelle Pace and Peter Seeberg
War and Democratization
Legality, Legitimacy and Effectiveness
Edited by Wolfgang Merkel and Sonja Grimm
Democratization in the Muslim World
Changing Patterns of Authority and Power
Edited by Francesco Volpi and Francesco Cavatorta
Religion, Democracy and Democratization
Edited by John Anderson
On the State of Democracy
Edited by Julio Faundez
First published 2016
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