How Western donor assistance can both help and undermine democracy in different parts of the world Democracy promotion is a central pillar of the foreign policy of many states, but the results are often disappointing. In Promoting Democracy, Manal A. Jamal examines why these efforts succeed in some countries, but fail in others. A former journalist and researcher in the Palestinian territories, she offers an up-close perspective of the ways in which Western donor funding has, on one hand, undermined political participation in cases such as the Palestinian territories, and, on the other hand, succeeded in bolstering political engagement in cases such as El Salvador. Based on five fieldwork trips and over 150 interviews with grassroots activists, political leaders, and directors and program officers in donor agencies and NGOs, Jamal brings into focus an often-overlooked perspective: the experiences of those directly affected by this assistance. Promoting Democracy makes an important and timely argument about how political settlements ultimately shape democracy promotion efforts, and what political choices Western state sponsored donors can make to maximize successful outcomes in different contexts across the world.

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A detailed examination of the role of US and European 'democracy promoters' in Jordan based on a diverse range of original source material.

In Advancing Democracy Abroad, McFaul explains how democracy provides a more accountable system of government, greater economic prosperity, and better security compared with other systems of government. He then shows how Americans have benefited from the advance of democracy abroad in the past, and speculates about security, economic, and moral benefits for the United States from potential democratic gains around the world.

The United States faces no greater challenge today than successfully fulfilling its new ambition of helping bring about a democratic transformation of the Middle East. Uncharted Journey contributes a wealth of concise, illuminating insights on this subject, drawing on the contributors' deep knowledge of Arab politics and their substantial experience with democracy-building in other parts of the world. The essays in part one vividly dissect the state of Arab politics today, including an up-to-date examination of the political shock wave in the region produced by the invasion of Iraq. Part two and three set out a provocative exploration of the possible elements of a democracy promotion strategy for the region. The contributors identify potential false steps as well as a productive way forward, avoiding the twin shoals of either reflexive pessimism in the face of the daunting obstacles to Arab democratization or an unrealistic optimism that fails to take into account the region's political complexities. Contributors include Eva Bellin (Hunter College), Daniel Brumberg (Carnegie Endowment), Thomas Carothers (Carnegie Endowment), Michele Dunne (Georgetown University), Graham Fuller, Amy Hawthorne (Carnegie Endowment), Marina Ottaway (Carnegie Endowment), and Richard Youngs (Foreign Policy Centre).

Promoting democracy has grown from a small, little- known activity to a high-profile endeavor. It now involves academia, think tanks, and the popular media. The number of countries and organizations, inter-governmental, non-governmental, as well as governmental involved in supporting the spread of democracy is now legion. Countries touched by these efforts include a majority of all the world’s states and some independent territories that are not yet fully sovereign. The definitional boundaries between promoting democracy and international advocacy and defense of human rights and "good governance" are not precise. Similarly, the concept of promoting democracy itself is not uniformly accepted. It has become a slogan that attracts both fervent support and grave condemnation. For Burnell, promoting democracy refers to a wide range of non-coercive attempts to spread democracy abroad for whatever reason. At its heart, it is political intervention in the domestic affairs of other countries that seeks to affect the distribution of power, whether by patient and non-violent involvement or more urgent action, democracy assistance projects form a core activity. Burnell holds that participation in the democracy assistance industry will continue to grow. However, the industry’s progress up until now has in part been contingent on the progress of democratization itself. The slowdown that is currently happening in the advance of freedom and democracy around the world, and the strength shown by leading authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes, must raise questions about the outlook for democracy promotion. If democracy promotion and assistance are to be fit for the future, then the need for a broadly based, appropriately contextualized examination of the policy and the performance is greater now than at any time in the past.

Demand for practical knowledge and lessons about how the United States and other countries can more effectively promote democracy around the world has never been higher. This timely book by Thomas Carothers, one of the foremost authorities worldwide on democracy building, helps meet that need. Critical Mission draws together a wide-ranging set of Carothers's many seminal, widely cited essays, organized around four vital themes: the role of democracy promotion in U.S. foreign policy the core elements of democracy aid the state of democracy in the world the new U.S. push to promote democracy in the Middle East From puncturing myths about promoting civil society to sizing up the prospects for democracy in the Arab world, Carothers is consistently penetrating, incisive, and challenging to policymakers, democracy activists, and scholars alike.The book also includes the only up-to-date, comprehensive bibliography on democracy promotion.