Ideas and Interests: European Democracy Aid and the Democracy-Security Dilemma, 1990-2010

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, advanced democracies have enacted explicitstrategies of democracy promotion by providing assistance to governments,political parties, and other non-governmental groups and organizations all overthe world. This paper examines the factors shaping European Union democracyaid allocation decisions from 1990-2010, weighing the relative impact ofideational concerns (regime type, human rights) and self-interests (political,security, economic). We argue that EU democracy aid reflects a “democracysecurity dilemma” as the EU balances ideational reasons for promotingdemocracy with concerns over political and economic relationships, regionalstability, and security. We test our hypotheses with a series of random effects,generalized least squares and Heckman selection models, which provide supportfor our argument. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implicationsof these findings for the impact and explanation of EU democracy promotionpolicies.