The aim of this essay was to study the European Union’s (EU) role as a democracy promoter and its impact on Croatia’s democratization process. Croatia is a candidate country for membership in the EU which creates a possibility for impact and democracy promotion. The aim is met by studying the following questions:  In what way has the EU promoted democracy in Croatia? How did Croatia respond? To what extent has the EU contributed to Croatia’s democratization process?   Croatia is treated as a case study of the EU’s democracy promotion and the method used was qualitative text-analysis. The result of the study shows that the EU has considerably contributed to the consolidation of democracy in Croatia. However the EU’s democracy promotion is characterized by conditionality and Croatia’s interest in becoming a part of the EU has been essential for influence. Finally a discussion of to what extent the EU has contributed to the democratization of Croatia is provided.

Very little scholarship has been published on politics in Tunisia in the last two decades, resulting in scant coverage of the country’s political relations with the European Union (EU). Likewise, few studies of the EU’s democracy promotion and Mediterranean policies have provided any in-depth analysis of Tunisia. Meanwhile, much has been made by scholars of role played by democracy promotion in the EU’s foreign policy, particularly focusing on understandings of the Union as a ‘normative power’ or as an advocate of the ‘democratic peace theory’. By assessing EU democracy promotion in Tunisia, this thesis argues that democracy promotion has become a predominantly functional part of this foreign policy; its principal role being a means of realising the Union’s principal objectives of achieving security and stability for Europeans. By analysing the discourse of actors involved with the EU’s democracy promotion, the thesis traces a shift in EU policy from a more normative position in the mid-1990s to a more realist and securitised one since the turn of the twenty-first century. Tunisia has evolved over the last two centuries as a state strongly committed to European-influenced socio-economic reforms, but reforms which have led to little political contestability and few changes in government. However, as the EU forged a new approach to its Mediterranean neighbours, it established the promotion of democracy in its neighbours as an integral part of its foreign and security policies. Democracy was to be promoted in Tunisia within multilateral and holistic policy frameworks, such as the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and by a range of methods that encourage reform of many levels of the region’s societies. Yet it appears that these reforms are failing to deliver the political reforms they once promised. Furthermore, democracy is gradually slipping off the EU’s agenda, and its policy objectives converge with those of the Tunisian government as security concerns come to dominate its policy discourses. In the Tunisian context at least, democracy is a purely utilitarian device used to achieve security. When that security already exists, democracy loses its utility, and fades from its once prominent place in the EU policy in Tunisia.

No description available.

Democracy promotion is a key objective in both US and EU foreign development policy. The study attempts to provide a better understanding of both actors democracy promotion in Afghanistan. The US and the EU are perceived to have different approaches regarding democracy promotion. Therefor the study examines if US used top-down and EU bottom-up approaches respective coercive and persuasive methods. Approaches used by actors are examined in the study regarding democracy promotion in the case of Afghanistan. It is a case study with qualitative text analysis and the theories used are top-down and bottom up channels of democracy, and persuasive and stick methods. The survey has looked at the both actors’ commitment in Afghanistan during period of 2001-2014. The result shows that the US and EU have more similarities than differences in the case of Afghanistan and actors have combined both top-down and bottom-approaches in promotion of democracy and focused on cooperation and partnership.

The aim of this essay was to investigate European union’s role as a democracy promoter in Kosovo and its impact on the process of the democratization. Kosovo declared independency in 2008 and is a potential candidate country for a EU membership. In order to fulfil the aim of the essay three questions were used; To what extent has Kosovo fulfilled EU’s criteria of becoming a candidate country? In what way has the EU promoted democracy in Kosovo since their independency? To what extent has EU’s democracy promotion politics been successful or not? The method used to accomplish the purpose and answering the research-questions was qualitative text-analysis. The result of the study shows that the EU does perform as a democracy promoter and has contributed to the development of democracy in Kosovo. However, the EU’s democracy promotion is characterized by the enlargement of the European union and Kosovo’s interest in becoming a part of the union.

This study explores the literature on factors favorable to democratization. It is argued that there has been a domestic dominance, with international factors a forgotten dimension. It is also argued that the limited body of work dealing with international factors has been empirical in nature. This study sheds lights on one international factor in democracy promotion. The theoretical contribution of this study is the presented analytical framework for democracy promotion. The analytical framework consists of actors, interests, methods, channels, relations and impact. It is argued that, within a specific time-context (setting): (1) There are actors (2) that may promote the democracy norm and reinforcing interests. ( 3) They may use different methods of pursuing their interests and (4) that may be channeled towards domestic actors. (5) This may create certain relations and (6) have different impact on domestic actors. The empirical aim of this study is to illustrate the analytical framework. The empirical contribution is to provide an improved understanding of democracy promotion and democratization in postcommunist Europe. This is done by analyzing the role of the EU as democracy promoter in Slovakia, Belarus and FRY from 1995 to 2003. The analysis illustrates different interests, methods, channels, relations and impact between the EU as democracy promoter and the targeted states in Slovakia, Belarus and FRY.

Using a comparative trend analysis for fifteen states in the Middle East during President George W. Bush's eight year administration, this paper provides one method for answering the research question, "What was the priority/focus of U.S. Middle East policy during the W. Bush Administration?" Within the context of international relations theories neorealism, neoliberalism, and neoconservatism, U.S. policy is broken down into three policy priorities: stability, security, and democracy promotion and measured for each state for each year of the administration. Line graphs illustrate the changes from year to year and linear trend lines indicate the direction of change as positive, negative, or neutral. The results are used to validate the three working hypotheses: 1) if the U.S. views stability as paramount, then its foreign policy will be to support the status quo regimes, 2) if the U.S. wants to maintain security, then its foreign policy will be to demonstrate power projection via its military, and 3) if the U.S. aims at democracy promotion, the its foreign policy will be to implement economic aid and assistance programs to reform non-democratic governments and strengthen existing democratic institutions. Eleven states confirmed the stability hypothesis, nine states confirmed the security hypothesis, and twelve states confirmed the democracy promotion hypothesis. There was no discernable pattern between the trends across states indicating that the U.S. consistently pursued one policy priority over the others. There were only two complete cases in which a state had only one positive trending policy priority. / Master of Arts

A research report submitted to the School of Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Degree of Master of Arts in International Relations by coursework and research report. / In the early 1990s, issues of democracy, good governance, security and human rights became more prominent in the international system and attained space in various policy documents. The period has been characterized by massive waves of transitions from one-party to multi-party political systems, which can be described as global democratic revolutions. Such democratic revolutions or movement towards democracy was not confined to one territory; rather it was a worldwide phenomenon that reached many parts of the world such as Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. It involved radical political transitions due to pressure to promote political liberalization and foster democratic reforms in most of these countries. The push for democratization was led by various democratic actors such as the European Union, United States of America, Britain, Norway, Canada and institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank among others. The waves and calls for democratization by these actors have resulted in various democratic transition outcomes in which some of the recipient countries of external democratic support are left stuck in the process while some of them have completely failed and reverted back to authoritarian or oppressive regimes. Countries that have failed in the democratization process experience various consequences such as limited access to the media, fragmented opposition political parties, fraudulent electoral activities, violence and poor citizen participation. These shortfalls reflect gaps or inconsistencies in the outcomes of the democratization process that needs to be investigated. This study looks at the factors causing inconsistencies in the outcomes of the process.

Essa pesquisa pretende analisar as políticas diplomáticas de promoção da democracia dos Estados Unidos para a América Latina a partir de dois casos específicos: o autogolpe no Peru, em 1992, e o \'golpe institucional\' em Honduras no ano 2009. Em ambas as ocasiões os Estados Unidos se manifestaram em favor da restauração da ordem constitucional democrática e agiram de forma coordenada com a Organização dos Estados Americanos para a aplicação dos mecanismos de defesa da democracia previstos em seu quadro normativo, isto é , a Resolução 1080, substituída em 2001 pela Carta Democrática Interamericana. O construtivismo tal como proposto por Kratochwil consiste no referencial teórico que orienta essa pesquisa. / This research intends to analyze the United States diplomatic policy of democracy promotion to Latin American in two specific contexts: Peru\'s autogolpe in 1992, and Hondura\'s \'institutional coup\' in 2009. On both occasions, the United States acted in favor of restoring the democratic and constitutional order and work in coordination with the Organization of American States to implement its mechanisms to defende democracy set out in its legal framework, that is, Resolution 1080, replaced in 2001 by the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Constructivism as proposed by Friedrich Kratochwil consists on the theoretical framework that guides this research.

Does the presence of oil influence U.S. foreign policy towards Sub-Saharan African oil states? This study attempts to answer this question through a study of U.S. foreign policy towards Sub-Saharan African oil and non-oil states since the early 1960s. Although presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Jimmy Carter to George W. Bush have indicated that the United States has a moral obligation to promote democracy, democracy promotion became a central element of U.S. foreign policy after 1990. Scholars as well as policy makers, however, have suggested that the United States has frequently sacrificed the promotion of democracy and human rights in favor of other goals. In recent years, although promoting democracy and good governance have been described as leading U.S. foreign policy objectives in Africa, they may have been overshadowed by two other goals: the global war on terror and energy security. Gulf of Guinea countries have attracted U.S. attention as it tries achieving energy security. The United States in 2008 imported about sixteen percent of its oil from the Gulf of Guinea, and this figure is likely to increase to 25 percent by 2015. As U.S. oil interests in the region increase, some fear that the United States is likely to forgo its support for democracy in favor of energy security. This dissertation evaluates whether or not U.S. concerns about energy security or commercial interests have overshadowed its policy of promoting democracy in oil-exporting African countries. The dissertation finds that, in fact, there is no direct correlation between presence of oil and U.S. democracy promotion. When dealing with African oil states, the United States has not compromised its democratic and human rights principles, particularly since 1990.