Democracy and Conceptual Contestability: Reconsidering Conceptions of Democracy in Democracy Promotion

Abstract

Democracy is a deeply contested concept: historically, complex debates have revolved around the meaning of democracy and the plausibility of different ‘models of democracy.’ However, democracy’s conceptual contestability has received diminished attention in the post‐Cold War democracy promotion debate as the attention of democracy promotion actors and scholars has turned to fine‐tuning of policies through which a liberal democratic model can be successfully encouraged. It is argued here that the focus on the extension of the reach of the liberal democratic mode of governance has resulted in a conceptually impoverished appreciation of the multiple meanings that the idea of democracy can take. It is argued that the ‘essential contestability’ of the idea of democracy is not adequately recognized and tackled, which in turn has important effects for the ability of democracy promotion scholars, as well as practitioners, to take into account the consequences that considering alternative (non‐ or extra‐liberal) models of democracy might have for democracy promotion. To move the debate forward, I explore here, primarily in conceptual and theoretical terms, what serious engagement with the essential contestability of democracy might mean for democracy promotion. I argue that it entails a two‐fold move: ‘pluralization’ and ‘contextualization’ of the conceptions of democracy. The latter part of the article examines in detail the reasons that might exist for considering such a move in framing the study and the practice of democracy promotion, as well as the potential dangers that might be involved.

Democracy Promotion as Foreign Policy

“…Nevertheless, as other critical scholars have pointed out (Robinson, 1996;Abrahamsen, 2000;Ayers, 2006;Kurki, 2010Kurki, , 2013, we regularly see surprisingly specific sets of prescriptions given the emphasis placed on local context. In the White Paper, DFID suggests that "democratic politics requires representative institutions to which there are free and fair elections, freedom of expression, a free media, freedom of association and inclusive citizenship" (DFID, 2007b: 19).…”

“…Somewhat similarly, as we saw in Chapter 1, critical writers like Milja Kurki (2010Kurki ( , 2011Kurki ( , 2013, Alison Ayers (2006) and Rita Abrahamsen (2000) offer persuasive critiques of Democracy Promotion by pointing out that the narrow understanding of democracy that is promoted and demonstrating that it is based on a particular, Western, version of liberal democracy.…”

“…As Kurki (2010Kurki ( , 2013 has shown in detail, both the precision of the conceptualisation of democracy at the heart of Democracy Promotion and the consensus that seems to surround it, are all the more striking considering that democracy is one of the most contested concepts in the history of political theory. If we were to take history and context as seriously as the authors cited in the previous section suggest we should, we must quickly recognise that there have been many forms and models of rule throughout history that have been considered "democratic", not all of which have featured any or all of the institutions of liberal democracy.…”

‘It's the political, stupid’: national versus transnational perspectives on democratisation in Iraq

“…4 However, relatively few have engaged in debating this conceptual contestation surrounding democracy promotion and democratisation. 5 Because democracy promotion is very often intimately linked with economic globalisation and the economic liberalisation of countries being democratised, it is tempting to subjugate democracy promotion to the advances of global capitalism. Indeed, one could say that a key trend in the critical democracy promotion literature has been to do precisely this.…”

Regionális nemzetközi szervezetek demokrácia-támogatása a Nyugat-Balkánon

“…Az 1940-es években munkálkodó Schumpeter a kutatásokhoz világos és egyértelmű demokráciafogalmat kívánt alkotni, el kívánta kerülni a fogalom utópisztikus értelmezését. Schumpeter demokrácia alatt lényegében a választott vezetők által irányított kormányzati formát értett, és a demokrácia lényegét magában a "választásban" ragadta meg (Kurki [2010]), tehát a demokratikus eljárásra helyezte a hangsúlyt. Az általa alkotott fogalom precíz, ugyanakkor csak szűk értelmezést tesz lehetővé.…”