The undemocratic neighbours

The European Union is a union of democratic states whose foreign policy is by treaty committed to the promotion of democracy. Yet the Union is surrounded by undemocratic neighbourhoods in the east and the south – the very regions where its influence is supposed to be greatest. This book sets out to explain that paradox by looking at specific policies – including those of member states’ governments, a weak point in much of the existing literature – and their interaction with realities in particular countries. The picture that emerges is not complimentary. 

“The case studies in this volume,” writes editor Richard Youngs in the introduction, “offer a critical mass of evidence to suggest that the EU has failed to fulfil its idealistic commitments to support democratic reform and instead favours a more cautious mix of norms and realpolitik.”

This excessive caution is particularly evident in the case studies of Morocco (by Kristina Kausch) and the Balkans, where Sofia Sebastian chides the EU for its policy of “wait and see”, both in Bosnia

and Herzegovina and in Kosovo. Natalia Shapovalova, in her chapter on Ukraine, is sceptical that the EU’s offer of an association agreement will be sufficient to sustain democracy. The backsliding on democracy that has occurred since her piece was written appears to confirm that diagnosis.

Despite its geographical sweep – from the Balkans and Morocco to central Asia, the Persian Gulf and Nigeria – this collection manages to maintain its focus, perhaps helped by the fact that almost all contributors work for Fride, a foreign policy think-tank in Madrid headed by Youngs, the editor.

Fact File

The European Union and democracy promotion: a critical global assessment

Editor: Richard Youngs (206 pages)

Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. €47.