Making Transnational Democracy and Human Rights Activism Work? On the Trade-Offs of Eastern EU Support for Civil Society Development Abroad

Abstract

Supporting the diffusion of democracy and human rights has become an important element of the work of many state and non-state actors in international affairs (Diamond, 1995; Burnell, 2000). This trend has been reflected in the growing body of works on democracy promotion (Hassan & Ralph, 2011; Cardwell, 2011) and in the increasing attention the literature on comparative democratization has paid to the role played by external actors in regime change and consolidation (Whitehead, 1996; Zielonka, 2001). Most of these studies, however, have focused on the activities of a few Western countries. Yet, some of the newest democracies and former recipients of Western democracy and human rights assistance — the Eastern European members of the European Union (EU) — have become increasingly involved in supporting democratization abroad ( Jonavicius, 2008; Kucharczyk & Lovitt, 2008). Moreover, some of these Eastern EU countries have not only become key promoters in their neighborhood but have also already made some difference there by helping secure certain democratization gains in the post-communist space (Bunce & Wolchik, 2011; Pifer, 2010; CES, 2008). Therefore, this chapter asks: How have the Eastern EU countries been supporting democracy and human rights abroad? How is their activism different from Western efforts?