ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the action of the European Union (EU) to promote democratic rule of law in Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine, that is, the independent variable of the EUCLIDA model (see Chapter 2). After a brief description of the origins of the EU’s activity of democracy and rule of law promotion, I explain how the EU favors the adoption, implementation and internalization of norms concerning the five aspects of the democratic rule of law, i.e. civil and political rights, judicial system, institutional and administrative structures, anti-corruption policies and civilian control of the army and police in our case studies. My explanation is based on the assumption that the international actor’s (IA’s) action of the EUCLIDA model (see Chapter 2), and in particular the EU’s strategy to promote democratic rule of law is based on a supply of institutional ties and economic assistance to non-member countries, complemented by the demand to comply with certain political conditions. Moreover, the analysis shows that EU economic assistance is implemented through the realization of different projects, also in fields close to our dimensions of democratic rule of law. On the whole, the unique feature of this strategy is the combination of two main different modes of influence for an international actor, i.e. democratic conditionality and democratic socialization (see Chapter 2).1 Finally, the chapter compares the strategy of the EU to promote democratic rule of law with similar activities of other international actors, such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the United Nations (UN), and the World Bank (WB).
