Democracy promotion by the United States aimed to encourage governmental and non-governmental actors to pursue political reforms that will lead ultimately to democratic governance.
As the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is an area of the world vital to American interestsSaunders, Harold H. "U.S. Interests and Goals in the Middle East." MERIP Reports. No. 70 (Sep., 1978), p. 12 yet generally entrenched in non-democratic, authoritarian rule,Bellin, Eva. "The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective." Comparative Politics. Vol. 36, No. 2 (Jan. 2004), pp. 139–157 it has been the subject of increasing interest on the part of the American government and democracy promoters, particularly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, with many viewing democratic transition as essential to regional stability and international security.Dunne, Michele. "Integrating Democracy Promotion into U.S. Middle East Policy." Carnegie Papers. No. 50, October 2004. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004. p.7; Oz Hassan (2012) "Constructing Americas freedom agenda for the Middle East"
American efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East and North Africa were generally characterized by top-down and bottom-up democratization strategies, which can be pursued simultaneously.Schnabel, Albrecht. "Democratization and Peacebuilding." Democratization in the Middle East: Experiences, Struggles, Challenges. Ed. Amin Saikal and Albrecht Schnabel. New York: United Nations University Press, 2003. p.35 The former top-down approach involves putting rhetorical and diplomatic pressure on regimes to reform and could go so far as to involve direct American military engagement installing democratic government (as is the case in Iraq following the 2003 invasion). The U.S. government generally pursued the latter bottom-up approach by funding international organizations that help strengthen the bases for gradual democratic transition (the rule of law, accountable government institutions and expanded political competition) by offering technical assistance and training to political parties and electoral management bodies, engaging with civil society, producing assessments and polls, and promoting female political participation.Diamond, Larry. The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World. New York: Times Books/Henry Holt & Co., 2008. p.338 Some have criticized American democracy promotion for ineffectiveness, a lack of consistency, taking a one-size-fits-all approach and using democracy to justify military intervention abroad. Moreover, it's said that US democracy promotion had been accompanied by heavy costs for the US and considerable damage to the target countries.
Background: democracy as development
American promotion of democracy should be seen in the broader context of the international development field, in which there has been an increasing recognition of a relationship between governance and broad development challenges such as poverty.Diamond, Larry. "Foreign Aid in the National Interest: The Importance of Democracy and Governance." Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy: Lessons for the Next Half-Century. Ed. Picard, Louis A.; Groelsema, Robert; Buss, Terry F. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2007. p.61. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) identifies democracy and governance (DG) as essential to achieving overall UN development objectives and the Millennium Development Goals, because DG work is part of "expanding capabilities and enlarging the choices people have of fulfilling their lives.""A Guide to UNDP Democratic Governance Practice" (2010). p.5 The UNDP highlights three overall DG goals: fostering inclusive participation, strengthening responsive governing institutions, and basing democratic governance on international principles. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also places a priority on promoting democratic transition and good governance in accordance with overall U.S. foreign policy objectives."User's Guide to DG Programming." USAID. May 2010. p.3.
Generally, DG work can be seen as taking two approaches: one views democratization as a political struggle between democrats and non-democrats and directs aid toward political processes and institutions such as elections, political parties, and civil society; and the second views democratization as a slower, longer-term process and directs aid at a wide range of political and socioeconomic sectors.Carothers, Thomas. "Democracy Assistance: Political v. Developmental?" Journal of Democracy, Jan 2009, Vol. 20 Issue 1. P.5. In terms of implementation, donor country development agencies, such as USAID, UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), design and fund programs (according to donor country interests and local needs) that are often carried out by international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in coordination with local and international groups.Powley, E., and S. N. Anderlini. "Democracy and Governance." Inclusive Security, Sustainable Peace: A Toolkit for Advocacy and Action, by International Alert and Women Waging Peace. 2004. p.38.
MENA context
Although the definition of the "Middle East" is contested among international relations scholars, some have concluded that it encompasses an Arab core with a non-Arab periphery including Israel, Iran and Turkey.Hinnebusch, Raymond A. The International Politics of the Middle East. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003. p.1 While others argue that the Arab states of North Africa "are better seen as their own, separate, regional system," the term "Middle East and North Africa" is used predominantly in American, international, and United Nations DG development literature to refer to this area of the world. In the context of the MENA region, the impetus to direct American democracy promotion through international non-governmental NGOs stems from suspicion of the motives of the U.S. government.Diamond, Larry. The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World. New York: Times Books/Henry Holt & Co., 2008. p.338. Overall American DG priorities in MENA – including building accountable government institutions, promoting the rule of law, and expanding political competition – have been shaped in part by UN assessments of the region such as the Arab Human Development Report, installments of which have been released since 2002, in spite of American efforts generally to limit the UN's political role in the region.Saikal, Amin. "The United Nations and the Middle East." Democratization in the Middle East: Experiences, Struggles, Challenges. Ed. Amin Saikal and Albrecht Schnabel. New York: United Nations University Press, 2003. p.63 The UN Arab Human Development Report on freedom in the Arab world, which was written by Arab intellectuals and released in 2004, conceives of freedom and democratic governance as essential to development in Arab countries: "No Arab thinker today doubts that freedom is a vital and necessary condition, though not the only one, for a new Arab renaissance, or that the Arab world's capacity to face up to its internal and external challenges, depends on ending tyranny and securing fundamental rights and freedoms."UN Arab Human Development Report 2004 "Towards Freedom in the Arab World" The report envisions the role of the international community, and particularly the UN, as strengthening internally driven transformation by encouraging legal reforms that give civil society organizations freedom to operate and guaranteeing conditions to hold free and fair elections.
Rationale for external support
The rationale for outside support for democratization in the Middle East is outlined by Albrecht Schnabel, who says that the Middle East is a region with strong authoritarian regimes and weak civil society and identifies the democratization dilemma in the region as the following: a strong civil society is required to produce leaders and mobilize the public around democratic duties, but in order for such a civil society to flourish, a democratic environment and process allowing freedom of expression and order is required in the first place. "If domestic capacities are lacking, external support may be required. Externally supported creation of fragile, yet somewhat functioning institutions is meant to trigger the momentum needed to encourage the evolution of a functioning civil society. The latter will, after a few years of consolidation and post-conflict stability, produce the first wholly internally crafted government. At that time, external involvement, if still provided at that point, can cede."Schnabel, Albrecht. "Democratization and Peacebuilding." Democratization in the Middle East: Experiences, Struggles, Challenges. Ed. Amin Saikal and Albrecht Schnabel. New York: United Nations University Press, 2003. p.28 Schnabel argues that democratization in the Middle East must come from both below and above, given that pressure from below will be pointless if the political leadership is opposed to reform, while top-down reform (which has been the norm in the Middle East) is not a fruitful endeavor if the political culture in society is not developed.Schnabel, p.35
Others challenge the assumption that civil society in the Arab world is weak, pointing to the flourishing of civil society activity visible when regimes permit a degree of liberalization, which in turn permits civil society to make further demands for political opening.Denoeux, Guilain. "Promoting Democracy and Governance in Arab Countries: Strategic Choices for Donors." NGOs and Governance in the Arab World. Ed. Sarah Ben Nefissa, Nabil Abd al-Fattah, Sari Hanafi, and Carlos Milani. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2005. p.79 Western donors should therefore not focus solely on creating demand for democracy on a societal level, but also on encouraging policy reform that would expand political competition by "putting a stop to legislative manipulation aimed at maintaining state and government control over NGOs" and "allowing a revival of politics in a society where a correct political life has been stifled by the state."Sa'id, Muhammad Al-Sayyid. "Civil Versus Political Culture in NGOs." NGOs and Governance in the Arab World. Ed. Sarah Ben Nefissa, Nabil Abd al-Fattah, Sari Hanafi, and Carlos Milani. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2005. p.63.
Still others assert that the conflation of promoting civil society and promoting democracy in development rhetoric is flawed. Whereas civil society is a tool for developing democracy, it is not democracy itself and indeed does not always result in democratic behavior or values.Hanafi, Sari. "Donors, International NGOs, and Palestine NGOs." NGOs and Governance in the Arab World. Ed. Sarah Ben Nefissa, Nabil Abd al-Fattah, Sari Hanafi, and Carlos Milani. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2005. p.355
American Public Support for Democracy Promotion In general, public support for democracy promotion is low. Public opinion polls since the 1990s consistently show that only about a quarter of Americans support democracy promotion. Academic research further suggests that Americans are not persuaded to support international democracy promotion either to spread American values abroad or to promote US national interest.
History of American democracy promotion
American foreign policy attitudes toward democracy promotion in the Middle East and North Africa have changed significantly from the twentieth to the twenty-first centuries, with the former largely dominated by nominal commitment to democratic change in the region and the latter witnessing intensified, even forceful, efforts at democratization.
Post-WWII