Negotiating democracy with authoritarian regimes. EU democracy promotion in North Africa

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

In order to better understand the dynamics of international cooperation on democracy promotion with authoritarian regimes, this article looks into the processes and results of negotiations on democracy (promotion) between the European Union (EU) and two of its North African neighbours (Morocco, Tunisia) in the decade leading up to the Arab uprisings. Asking if, how, and to what effect the EU and its Mediterranean partners have negotiated issues related to democracy promotion, it analyses official documents issued on the occasion of their respective association council meetings in 2000-2010. It shows that partners have indeed addressed these issues since the early 2000s, however, without engaging in substantive exchanges. Most of the time, conflicts have been neither directly addressed nor resolved. Where there are traces of actual negotiations leading to an agreement, these are clearly based on a logic of bargaining rather than arguing. These findings challenge the picture of harmony and cooperation between the EU and Morocco. Furthermore, they point to the low quality of these exchanges which reinforces the dilemma of international democracy promotion in cooperation with authoritarian regimes.

Original languageEnglish
JournalDemocratization
Volume26
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)869-888
Number of pages20
ISSN1351-0347
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 04.07.2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
I would like to thank the members of the German Research Network “External Democracy Promotion” and all the participants of the panel on “Negotiating International Democracy Promotion” at the 2018 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association for their valuable feedback. Special thanks go to Anke Draude, Sonja Grimm, Julia Leininger, Annika Poppe, Esther Seha, Jonas Wolff, and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this article.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

    Research areas

  • authoritarianism, bargaining, democracy promotion, European Union, leverage, Morocco, negotiation, Tunisia
  • Politics

Documents

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Increasing the Agility of IT Delivery
  2. The economic and psychological effects of cash transfers in development cooperation
  3. Strong genetic differentiation on a fragmentation gradient among populations of the heterocarpic annual Catananche lutea L. (Asteraceae)
  4. Inspektionsbasierte Schul- und Unterrichtsentwicklung
  5. Critique
  6. Praxis in Kindertageseinrichtungen
  7. Apriorische Gewissheit
  8. Music consumption at the dawn of the music industry
  9. Teachers’ Conversational Style and Children’s Language Development in German Childcare Centers
  10. Entwicklung und Validierung eines Fragebogens zur Erfassung von Freude am Schulsport im Jugendalter (FEFS-J)
  11. Society and territory
  12. Coffee Machine as a mediating technology of organization
  13. Collective Renewable Energy Prosumers and the Promises of the Energy Union
  14. Weltnomos der Zivilgesellschaft und Normalisierung des Krieges
  15. Demokratiekompetenz als berufliche Handlungskompetenz
  16. Degraded creep resistance induced by static precipitation strengthening in high-pressure die casting Mg-Al-Sm alloy
  17. Futurizing politics and the sustainability of real-world experiments
  18. Modellieren = Sachrechnen?
  19. Cognitive dissonance in sustainability scientists regarding air travel for academic purposes
  20. Stephanosporin, a "traceless" precursor of 2-Chloro-4-nitrophenol in the gasteromycete Stephanospora caroticolor
  21. Biocultural approaches to sustainability
  22. Geschäftsführung ohne Auftrag (§§ 677-687)
  23. Auctionning biodiversity conservation contracts
  24. Lernen in authentischen Situationen versus Lernen mit Texten
  25. Ende der Welt, Anfang des Bildes
  26. Corridors as a tool for linking habitats – Shortcomings and perspectives for plant conservation
  27. Three shades of 'urban-digital citizenship'
  28. Least-Cost Transportation Planning - Eine Konzeptidee
  29. Temporary Agency Work and Firm Performance
  30. Hundert Jahre und kein bisschen weise?
  31. Wo lernen Kinder mit sonderpädagogischem Förderbedarf besser?
  32. Stranger Things II (2017)
  33. Online health information-seeking behaviour and mental well-being among Finnish higher education students during COVID-19
  34. Archival or perceived measures of environmental uncertainty?
  35. Non scholae, sed vitae discimus!
  36. Strategien des Sichtbarmachens in der Ethnografie