Is There a New Autocracy Promotion?

One ofwhatkind? Comparative perspectives on the substance of EU democracy promotion

“…Jackson contends that Russia in particular 'has encouraged, and sometimes promoted through indirect and direct means, its own form of political governance, which in many ways is at odds with the Western liberal democratic model ' (2010, 114). This has often entailed a limitation of Western democratization efforts (Burnell 2010). Altogether, these points show that the substance of democracy promotion cannot simply be taken for granted and requires critical reflection.…”

Lesson Learned? Democratic Resilience to Digital Election Meddling in the U.S. and Germany

“…Die vorliegende Arbeit verbindet die Teilbereiche der Internationalen Beziehungen (IB) und der Vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft (VP) miteinander. Auch wenn etwa das Eingreifen der USA in regionale Angelegenheiten südamerikanischer Staaten während des Kalten Krieges (Cottam 1994) nicht verschwiegen werden soll, untersuchten die IB bisher stärker autokratische Staaten, die entweder "democracy prevention" (van Soest 2014) oder "autocracy promotion" (Burnell 2010;Bader et al 2010;Tansey 2016) betrieben haben. Gemeinsamer Nenner beider Konzepte war bislang der regionale Fokus, widergespiegelt auch in der Mehrzahl der bisherigen Fallbeispiele, etwa zu Russland oder China (Ambrosio 2007;Melnykovska et al 2012;Bader 2015).…”

The problem with autocracy promotion

“…As a result of these patterns of international support and influence, the idea of autocracy promotion has gained considerable academic currency. 3 However, I argue that recent research on the topic of autocracy promotion is seriously flawed. Treatments of the concept have suffered from a number of critical problems that severely limit its analytical utility.…”

“…10 One of the clearest examples of this problem is the use of the idea of autocracy promotion, which has become a key focus of scholarly attention in recent years. 11 Not all authors who examine the role that external actors can play in supporting authoritarianism at the domestic level use the language of autocracy promotion, 12 but those who do have tended to use this concept in problematic ways. Few offer a clear definition that would help delimit precisely what counts, and does not count, as autocracy promotion, and several key contributions offer conceptualisations that are so loose that the utility of the concept begins to wash away.…”

“…Peter Burnell was an early contributor to the literature on autocracy promotion, and helped focus attention on this form of activity. 15 However, Burnell defines the concept so widely that it appears to encompass multiple distinct forms of international influence that do not all include active regime promotion. Burnell offers both an inclusive and exclusive definition of autocracy promotion.…”