The normative challenge of interaction: Justice conflicts in democracy promotion

Abstract

In the global ‘North-West’, liberal democracy is regarded as the universally valid model of political rule that is to be promoted globally via foreign and development policies. Democracy promotion, however, is frequently challenged by justice-related claims. Whereas external democracy promoters claim to help enforce universal individual rights, those resisting democracy promotion point to the collective entitlement to a self-determined political evolution. ‘North-Western’ governments see liberal democracy as the only embodiment of a just political order, but in those countries that are the targets of democracy promotion different understandings of appropriate norms and institutions may exist. Contestation of democracy promotion has, therefore, a crucial normative dimension that can be conceptualized as a series of conflicts over justice. If we conceive of external democracy promotion as a process of interaction instead of unidirectional export or socialization, such justice conflicts constitute a major normative challenge to democracy promoters. The paper argues for an alternative perspective on ‘democracy promotion as interaction’ and presents a typology of justice conflicts that will, in future research, enable us to empirically analyse the normative challenges brought about by the interactive nature of democracy promotion.

The contested spaces of civil society in a plural world: norm contestation in the debate about restrictions on international civil society support

“…68-69). The critique of external interference in the name of national sovereignty and collective self-determination can, in contrast, point to wellestablished, if certainly not uncontested, international principles (Poppe & Wolff, 2013). Yet, in existing studies on the issue, this normative dimension is largely ignored.…”

“…In order to empirically study norm contestation in the area of democracy promotion, we have developed a theoretical framework that focuses on the concept of 'justice conflicts' (Poppe & Wolff, 2013). In line with Welch's (1993) study on the role of justice in international politics as well as recent refinements of this approach (see Müller, 2010), justice conflicts are defined as clashes of claims to perceived entitlements (justice claims).…”

Claiming Justice for Israel/Palestine: The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Campaign and Christian Organizations

“…Justice claims can be self-referential when the claimant is maintaining that something belongs to her/him; or other-referential, referring to an injustice suffered by someone else (Welch, 1993). The approach can be broadly situated within constructivism's emphasis on norms, ideas and language as being constitutive of social reality (Poppe & Wolff, 2013). More specifically, it is related to recent constructivist research on norm contestation (Acharya, 2009, Wolff & Zimmermann, 2015.…”

When democratic governance unites and divides: Social status and contestation in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

“…While scholars have argued that democratic governance became a more formal basis of social stratification in international society at the end of the Cold War, attenuating the principle of sovereign equality and marginalizing some states from the full benefits of membership (Clark, 2005: 159, 173–179; Donnelly, 2012; Hurrell, 2007: 143–158; Viola, 2013: 120–126), there is a dearth of research on potential implications in formal IOs. Scholarship on norm contestation typically analyzes norms as the primary object of explanation (Wiener, 2014, 2018; Brazys and Dukalskis, 2017; Deitelhoff and Zimmermann, 2020; Panke and Petersohn, 2012; Poppe and Wolff, 2013; Rosert and Schirmbeck, 2007; Wolff and Zimmermann, 2016). Less attention has been paid to symbols of informal social hierarchies as objects (or targets) of contestation in international organizations.…”