Democracy Promotion: Comparing African and Asian Experiences

Abstract

In the wake of the Third Wave Wave of democracy, the EU developed democracy promotion policies toward African and Asian countries in the form of negative linkage (posing political conditions for economic aid) or positive linkage (supporting democratic reforms). The literature on democracy promotion points to four issues affecting this policy domain: competing political or economic interests, the degree of linkage and leverage, the presence of a normative consensus and the choice of a positive or negative linkage strategy. While there are significant differences in timing and kind of democratic transition in Sub-Sahara Africa and Southeast Asia, in both regions democracy still faces significant challenges. Policies toward both regions show significant similarities and differences: in both regions, democracy promotion suffers from competing political or economic interests, which is particularly visible in the material on two large countries from each region. The linkages and leverage between the EU and Sub-Sahara Africa are higher than in Southeast Asia, and the normative framework for Africa is developed more than in Asia. The EU is rather timid toward Southeast Asia compared to Sub-Sahara Africa, reflecting the presence of the ‘Asian values’ debate and lower linkage and leverage. In both regions, democracy promotion faces severe challenges due to difficult internal conditions. If donors wish to contribute to democratization, the positive linkage strategy holds more promise, but foremost, they need to be more consistent in choosing democracy over other political or economic interests.

Keywords: Democracy, Positive Linkage, Negative Linkage, Sub-Sahara Africa, Southeast Asia 

Oda van Cranenburgh, Associate Professor, Leiden University ; Email: cranen@fsw.leidenuniv.nl