Abstract
As the introduction to this edited volume, this chapter reiterates the relevance of studying the European Union’s democracy promotion in its near (and further) abroad. It does so by outlining the most fundamental changes to the EU’s democracy promotion agenda – both within and without – in the past 25 years. The chapter further sets the stage for the remainder of the volume by discussing the complexity of defining democracy and democracy promotion, by outlining the book’s theoretical framework (namely Normative Power Europe), and by demarcating its geographic scope (South Eastern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia). Finally, the volume’s individual chapters are introduced along conceptual and empirical lines.
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Notes
- 1.
To an extent, European democracies have been challenged also in earlier decades, whether by separatist movements, such as the ETA in Spain or the IRA in Ireland, or the rise of illiberal politicians to power, such as Jörg Haider and his Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) in 1999/2000. Yet, when compared to the challenges to liberal democracies we observe on European soil today, these were (i) isolated instances and (ii) addressed by both the EU member state in question and the European Union as a whole vigorously.
- 2.
Particularly with regard to the European Union, such a rigid definition of democracy would be hard to find, as the EU rather operationalizes democracy as a set of democratic practices and norms.
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Neuman, M., Stanković, S. (2019). Introduction: EU Democracy Promotion in Its Near (and Further) Abroad Through the Prism of Normative Power Europe. In: Neuman, M. (eds) Democracy Promotion and the Normative Power Europe Framework. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92690-2_1
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