Theory building on European Union (EU) democracy promotion has developed at the intersection of International Relations (IR) and European Studies (ES) and in relation to constructivism-realism debates in IR. In effect, theory-guided analyses primarily aim at explaining the EU’s (normative power or) actor-type, motivation for democracy, or the incoherent form of EU democracy promotion. Questions of change caused little debate and if, scholars diagnosed continuity rather than change, also with the help of institutional approaches. Against this background, this paper refers to the unexploited potential of institutionalist approaches for the analysis of change of EU democracy promotion in particular in times of democratic crisis (2004-). Institutional approaches are compatible with microanalysis of patterns and practices in the EU democracy promotion field, challenge binary distinctions between continuity and (paradigmatic) change and allow for the analysis of results and processes of change in EU democracy promotion. The pattern of change in EU democracy promotion is complex and marked by processes of different speed. While the main focus of the paper is the introduction of a new analytical lens, it illustrates its analytical claims with examples from EU democracy promotion in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
