ABSTRACT
The chapter defines the actors (EU institutions and the US) analyzed in the book, briefly explains their prominence in global democracy promotion and discusses to what extent the two actors have a common goal in promoting democracy. To set the tone for the book and formulate the research question, the chapter discusses the contestability of democracy as a concept and how this contestability affects the practice of democracy promotion. Furthermore, the chapter discusses the role of identity in the formulation of value-based, ethical foreign policies. The argument will be made that in order to grasp the two actors’ approaches to democracy assistance, we need to understand their respective democratic identities. The chapter defines key terms and juxtaposes the notion of democracy promotion with terms such as development and state-building. The conceptual difference between often interchangeably used terms such as democratization, democracy assistance, democracy promotion, democracy aid, etc., is explained.
