Intervention and Promotion of Democracy. The Paradoxes of External Democratization and the Power-Sharing Between International Officials and Local Political Leaders
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Andrea Carati
Abstract
Since the end of the Cold War new practices of external interferences in the domestic affairs of states have revealed an unprecedented relationship between international intervention and the promotion of democracy. In fact, the new generation of peace-building missions is oriented toward the democratization of the target country. Moving from the paradoxes brought about by the goal of democratization, the paper offers an explanation of the power-sharing between international officials and local political actors in the target country. On the one hand, a democratic approach to international intervention fosters self-determination, tends to grant sovereignty and independence and considers the international mandate as temporary. On the other hand, the goal of democratization entails the establishment of enduring neo-trusteeships, violating the sovereignty and independence of the target-state. The paper focuses on three case-studies (Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor) to assess how those paradoxes lead to conflicting attitudes by international officials – who both concede and retain essential powers over local political actors – creating a power-sharing in the target country.
©2013 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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- Homo Politicus – Towards a Theory of Political Action and Motivation
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Article
- The Production of Institutional Facts in Economic Discourse
- Different Paths of Transitional Justice in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland
- Homo Politicus – Towards a Theory of Political Action and Motivation
- Global Victimhood: On the Charisma of the Victim in Transitional Justice Processes
- Intervention and Promotion of Democracy. The Paradoxes of External Democratization and the Power-Sharing Between International Officials and Local Political Leaders
- Foreign Impacts Revisited: Islamists’ Struggles in Post-War Iraq
- Concentration of Decision-Making Power: Investigating the Role of the Norwegian Cabinet Subcommittee
- Referendum: A Complement or a Threat to Representative Democracy?
- MKs Usage of Personal Internet Tools, 2009: On the verge of a New Decade
- Ten Years of European Impact Assessment: How It Works, for What and for Whom
- Political Parties and Pension Generosity in Times of Permanent Austerity
- The Electoral Consequences of Welfare State Reforms for the Danish Social Democrats
- Electoral Competition and the Constituent-Representative Relationship
- Austria Inc. Forever? On the Stability of a Coordinated Corporate Network in Times of Privatization and Internationalization
- Development of Health Care in Lithuania and Estonia: Similar Conditions, Different Results
