Is European Democracy Promotion on the Wane?

Although Cambodia adopted a modern democratic constitution in 1993, Prime Minister Hun Sen has consolidated an autocratic regime in which elections are the only way political competition plays out, and even that competition is limited. Freedom of expression, horizontal and vertical control mechanisms, and civil participation have been reduced to almost zero by the Royal Government of Cambodia. Irrespective of the deinstitutionalization of liberal principles, the European Commission and some EU member states still perceive Cambodia as moving toward democratization. In the case of Cambodia, the difficulty of external democracy promotion is compounded by the limited impact of formal state institutions, which are completely undermined by kinship relations, personal networks, clientelism and nepotism. However, one can observe not only non-effective efforts toward European democracy promotion, but also increasing human rights violations due to trade facilitations, namely the EU's “Everything But Arms” initiative.

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European democracy promotion in Russia before and after the ‘colour’ revolutions

Democratization ◽

10.1080/13510340903083018 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 732-755 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Sinikukka Saari

Keyword(s):

Democracy Promotion ◽

European Democracy ◽

Before And After

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International, national or local? Explaining the substance of democracy promotion: the case of Eastern European democracy promotion

Cambridge Review of International Affairs ◽

10.1080/09557571.2014.891100 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 136-155 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Tsveta Petrova

Keyword(s):

Democracy Promotion ◽

Eastern European ◽

European Democracy

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The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims

10.23943/princeton/9780691144214.001.0001 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 87

Author(s):

Jonathan Laurence

Keyword(s):

Trade Unions ◽

Western Europe ◽

Government Officials ◽

Critical Junctures ◽

Muslim Immigrants ◽

European Democracy ◽

The Government ◽

Muslim Communities ◽

Integration Problems ◽

Muslim Minorities

This book traces how governments across Western Europe have responded to the growing presence of Muslim immigrants in their countries over the past fifty years. Drawing on hundreds of in-depth interviews with government officials and religious leaders in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Morocco, and Turkey, the book challenges the widespread notion that Europe's Muslim minorities represent a threat to liberal democracy. The book documents how European governments in the 1970s and 1980s excluded Islam from domestic institutions, instead inviting foreign powers like Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Turkey to oversee the practice of Islam among immigrants in European host societies. But since the 1990s, amid rising integration problems and fears about terrorism, governments have aggressively stepped up efforts to reach out to their Muslim communities and incorporate them into the institutional, political, and cultural fabrics of European democracy. The book places these efforts—particularly the government-led creation of Islamic councils—within a broader theoretical context and gleans insights from government interactions with groups such as trade unions and Jewish communities at previous critical junctures in European state-building. By examining how state–mosque relations in Europe are linked to the ongoing struggle for religious and political authority in the Muslim-majority world, the book sheds light on the geopolitical implications of a religious minority's transition from outsiders to citizens. This book offers a much-needed reassessment that foresees the continuing integration of Muslims into European civil society and politics in the coming decades.

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