Authoritarianism and Democratic Transition/Consolidation in the European Neighbourhood I

Abstract

The ENP literature is predominantly situated in the EU external governance paradigm focusing on the weak EU incentives for change in the neighbourhood and the subsequent failure of EU policy to instigate positive change in both the eastern and the southern neighbourhoods. This literature has not sufficiently taken into account domestic conditions and obstacles to change. It has not fully benefitted from opening and exposure to the democratisation and authoritarianism literatures. The scholarship that has tried to explain the broader phenomena of democratization and authoritarianism, in turn, has not fully accounted for both the democratic advances and the authoritarian resilience that we observe in the European neighbourhood. On the one hand, it has focused predominantly on explaining transitions away from authoritarian rule and democracy consolidation. On the other hand, the study of comparative authoritarianism has favoured domestic explanations of authoritarian resilience, crediting mostly the role of domestic institutions for ensuring the longevity of authoritarian rule. The international dimension of authoritarian rule is notably under-researched and under-conceptualized notwithstanding the explicit policies pursued by external actors to both encourage political liberalization and strengthen authoritarian allies. Likewise, the societal dimension is under-credited for initiating ‘democratisation from below’. Against this background, the panel sets to bring new insights about the external and domestic factors that foster democratic advances and those that contribute to the entrenchment of authoritarian regimes in the European neighbourhood. The papers in this panel tease out the conceptual relationships in this nexus of external-internal determinants of political governance and provide new empirical evidence from various cases from the European Neighbourhood countries, New Members and Accession Candidates.

Title	Details
Analyzing the Effect of the European Neighborhood Policy: The Case of Human Rights	View Paper Details
Coming Together or Drifting Apart? The EU’s Political Integration Capacity in New Members, Accession Candidates, and Eastern Neighbourhood Countries	View Paper Details
Authoritarian Resilience and Breakdown in the Eastern European Neighbourhood	View Paper Details
Authoritarian Consolidation and Political Liberalisation in North Africa	View Paper Details
In the Crosshairs of Great Powers? Linkage, Leverage and Protracted Transitions in Weak States	View Paper Details