ABSTRACT
Introduction The promotion of democracy holds a central place within the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). In the post-Lisbon era, this role is acknowledged in Article 8 of the Treaty on European Union, which states that relations with the neighbours should be based on the values of the European Union (EU), including democracy. A prolific scholarship has extensively analysed and critically assessed the EU’s performance in promoting democracy in the neighbourhood (for instance, Youngs 2009; Lavenex and Schimmelfennig 2011). While most contributions focus on how the EU promotes democracy and whether and when the latter is effective, the ‘why’ of EU democracy promotion is often neglected. However, taking a step back and enquiring about the motives that drive the EU to promote democracy in its neighbourhood can contribute to better understanding the fundamental objectives of the ENP. This is true particularly in light of the deterioration of the security situation in the neighbourhood. Many countries participating in the policy are torn by violence and poverty. They are, especially in the East, weak states whose existence is regularly threatened by separatist claims. While the neighbours are faced with these challenges, and while their statehood and territorial integrity are seriously called into question, what drives the EU nonetheless to promote democracy in these ENP countries? In addressing this question, this chapter puts forward a hypothesis based on the theoretical frameworks of cosmopolitanism and poststructuralism. In spite of their differences, both frameworks offer similar explanations with regard to the reasons for promoting democracy – in the EU’s external action generally and more specifically in its neighbourhood. Their explanations converge around the assumption that EU democracy promotion favours the emergence of new forms of post-national, multilayered and de-territorialized governance that, through the dispersion of power, is conducive to security. As shown in the following, such understandings of EU democracy promotion may be defined as either ‘proactive cosmopolitanism’ or ‘proactive governmentality’, two concepts that are derived from the theoretical approaches of cosmopolitanism and post-structuralism.
