Democracy and Human Rights Policies / Book
Democracy's plight in the European Neighbourhood
30/10/2009 By Michael Emerson, Richard Youngs
In recent years many analysts have focused their attention on an apparent ‘backlash’ against democracy and democracy promotion. FRIDE and CEPS have previously cooperated on exploring the general nature of this ‘backlash’. In this volume we turn to a more specific European neighbourhood focus, and explore the general issues relating to democracy’s travails in more detail in the countries to the south and east of the European Union. The underlying question is whether, in an era of democratic pessimism, the European neighbourhood can offer any more optimistic conclusions.
In this context we asked a group of experts -Leila Alieva, Senem Aydin Düzgit, Alexander Bogomolov, Hakim Darbouche, Richard Giragosian, Balazs Jarabik, Kristina Kausch, George Khutsishvili, Elena Klitsounova, Alexander Lytvynenko, Neil J. Melvin, Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Gergana Noutcheva, Vesna Pešić, Nicu Popescu, Dina Shehata, Vitali Silicki and Andrew Wilson- to write short essays covering fifteen different case studies from across the neighbourhood region. They assess a common range of questions: Is democratisation now in retreat, or just stagnating? Do we risk exaggerating the importance of recent setbacks? What is happening to the normative appeal of democracy? How does the financial crisis impact on political trends? How have external democracy promotion efforts evolved and been received? Is international democracy promotion running out of steam? What has been the impact of the slowing of the EU’s enlargement process, alongside the limited scope of its neighbourhood policy?
The book addresses these specific questions in three groups of states. First, those countries in or close to the European Union: Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. Second, states of the former Soviet Union: Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Belarus.Third, three Arab states of the southern Mediterranean: Morocco, Algeria and Egypt.
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Keywords
Algeria Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Bulgaria Central Asia and Russia Civil society Democracy promotion Egypt EU European Neighbourhood Policy European Union Georgia Kazakhstan Moldova Morocco North Africa Romania Russia Serbia Turkey UkraineRelated publications
- Crimea in the European neighbourhood
- Elections and European Neighbourhood Policy in Armenia
- How serious is the EU about supporting democracy and human rights in its neighbourhood?
- Is the European Union supporting democracy in its neighbourhood?
- The reluctant debutante: The European Union as promoter of democracy in its neighbourhood
Bio author: Michael Emerson
Michael Emerson is Associate Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) since 1998, and program director for Wider Europe; he participated in successive projects on the Balkans, Caucasus, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Cyprus, Middle East, conflict resolution, democracy promotion, Europe's strategic security, political Islam and the crisis of multi-culturalism within the EU.
Bio author: Richard Youngs
Richard Youngs is Director General of FRIDE. He also lectures at the University of Warwick in the UK. He studied at Cambridge (BA Hons) and Warwick (MA, PhD) universities.
