ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the experience of eastern enlargement has suggested an idealised vision of the European Union (EU) as a transformative power that is ill-suited to understanding the more indirect, partial and subtle effects a policy like the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) can have in terms of the diffusion of democratic governance. It presents the governance model of democracy promotion, which deem specific to the EU's ENP, and illustrates its potential with examples taken from a multi-annual research project on the topic conducted with a group of colleagues and published in S. Lavenex, F. Schimmelfennig and T. Freyburg. The ENP is directly modelled on the EU's enlargement policy. It was designed in the attempt to reproduce the transformative power ascribed to the EU in the context of post-communist enlargement. The chapter shows that democracy promotion, through functional cooperation, can have a certain impact even in relations with authoritarian regimes but only in a peaceful, interdependent world.
