*Topicality/Definitions Democracy Promotion Includes Military Intervention
Internal Link: Democracy Promotion Rooted in American Exceptionalism
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- Internal Link: Democracy Promotion Entrenches Hegemony
Internal Link: Democracy Promotion Rooted in American ExceptionalismDEMOCRACY PROMOTION ROOTED IN AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM Shahra Akbarzadeh & Benjamin MacQueen, Center for Islamic Studies, University of Melbourne & Sr. Lecturer in Political Inquiry-Monash University, 2013, American Democracy Promotion in the Changing Middle East: From Bush to Obama, eds. Akbarzadeh, MacQueen, Piscattori & Saikal, p. 1 The desire to reshape the world in accordance with the neo-conservative normative vision of free market liberal democracy could now be enacted in the Middle East. This doctrinal agenda was not alien to the political discourse in the United States. It drew heavily on a long tradition of American thinking on its exceptional role in the global arena. The idea that the United States was the global beacon of democracy and liberalism was given a boost during the Second World War and sustained American foreign policy during the Cold War. The bipolar world to uphold democracy in the American psyche. Efforts to oppose the Soviet anathema, what President Ronald Reagan called the ‘Evil Empire’, appeared to bear fruit with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Internal Link: Democracy Promotion Entrenches HegemonyUS DEMOCRACY PROMOTION STRATEGY IN THE MIDDLE EAST DESIGNED TO ENTRENCH HEGEMONIC COOPTATION Dionysis Markakis, Center for International and Regional Studies- Georgetown University, 2016, US Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: The Pursuit of Hegemony, p. 21-2 The US has subsequently sought to integrate the strategy of democracy promotion with a range of economic, social and cultural policies, seeking to influence Middle Eastern societies directly, based on the assumption that their co-option is essential to realizing a hegemonic system based on consent. This is reflected in the repeated statements by US policy-makers that civil society constitutes a bedrock for democratization in the Middle East. For instance, President G. W. Bush claimed: “liberty takes hold in different places in different ways, so we must continue to adapt and find innovative ways to support those movements for freedom. The way to do so is to stand with civil society, groups, human rights organizations, dissidents, independent journalists and bloggers, and others on the leading edge of reform.” US DEMOCRACY PROMOTION IS A STRATEGY OF EXERTING HEGEMONY Dionysis Markakis, Center for International and Regional Studies- Georgetown University, 2016, US Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: The Pursuit of Hegemony, p. 29-30 This chapter argues that US democracy promotion in the aftermath of the Second World War has constituted a pursuit of hegemony. First it accounts for the strategy’s formative influences: American exceptionalism, national security and capitalism. It then addresses the early formulation of democracy promotion, and its development into an organized, coherent strategy. The chapter then examines the implementation of the strategy in the Philippines under the Reagan Administration, and in Panama under George H.W. Bush. Reference is also made to Chile and Nicaragua as cases that spanned both administrations. These countries have been selected because they demonstrate the nature and scope of early US efforts to encourage transitions from authoritarianism to elite-based democratic governance, as well as the continuity of this strategy across administrations. They further provide a broader comparative context in which to situate the analysis of US democracy promotion in the Middle East.
Dionysis Markakis, Center for International and Regional Studies- Georgetown University, 2016, US Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: The Pursuit of Hegemony, p. 174-5 At its essence, the strategy of democracy promotion in the Middle East relates to the paramount importance attached to the region by the US. This is manifested in a complex, multifaceted and wide-ranging involvement, which derives from its primary regional interests; the security of energy supplies and its relationship with Israel. The objectives of democracy promotion have been twofold. First, the aim has been to ensure the stability of state and society in the countries concerned, as well as the broader region, by gradually encouraging the emergence of elite-based democracies to replace existing authoritarian arrangements, and institute a more enduring form of stability. Second, the aim has been the achievement of hegemony in the Gramscian sense, whereby the promoted liberal democratic ideology is accepted by Middle Eastern societies as the natural order. While authoritarian governments were long seen as the guarantors of stability in the region, the policy of democracy promotion has emerged as a result of the US’s need to shape political transitions as they inevitably occur across this last major bastion of authoritarian rule. The fact remains that authoritarian governments, reliant on coercion, are more likely to face popular challenges to their rule, and therefore instability, than governments that utilize more consensual means, such as elite-based democracies. The Philippines under Marcos, Chile under Pinochet, and Panama under Noriega are all examples, with the US eventually ceasing support and facilitating transitions to democracy. This generally results in more subtle, nuanced forms of social control, with the underlying aim consistently remaining the maintenance of stability. The strategy of democracy promotion is therefore not about America exercising direct control in these countries, but rather attempting to manage political outcomes so as to maintain its influence and interests. In the Middle East as elsewhere, the US has sought to achieve this by cultivating the necessary actors, located mainly within civil society, to gradually facilitate an eventual transfer of support away from authoritarian political systems to elite-based democracies. The present study has constituted an attempt to trace the contours of this ongoing transition in US policy to the Middle East, a gradual strategic shift in emphasis from coercive to consensual forms of governance. US DEMOCRACY PROMOTION IN THE MIDEAST IS PART OF A LONG-TERM GRADUAL STRATEGY THAT WILL SUPPORT US HEGEMONIC INTERESTS Dionysis Markakis, Center for International and Regional Studies- Georgetown University, 2016, US Democracy Promotion in the Middle East: The Pursuit of Hegemony, p. 177 Third, the case studies reflect the fact that democratic promotion in the Middle East is very much an ongoing US strategy, still in the early stages. As elsewhere, it has been based on the principle that capitalism is integral to the emergence of democracy, evinced by the fact that both the Clinton and G.W. Bush administrations implemented Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs) with each of the case studies, in an attempt to foster the underlying economic conditions for eventual political reform. Overall, US democracy in the Middle East has been characterized by an emphasis on incremental political, economic, social and cultural reforms, with the maintenance of stability paramount. As a result, it is important to note that the US has not sought to destabilize existing authoritarian allies by withdrawing support, so as to encourage transition to more consensual forms of governance, as was the case with Pinochet in Chile for example. This is primarily because until recently, authoritarian governments in the region had not faced popular challenges to their rule, and had therefore remained relatively stable. Democracy promotion in the Middle East is seen by the US as a long-term strategy, which corresponds with the gradual processes of internalization of the achievement of a Grramscian hegemony necessitates.
Daniela Huber, Senior Fellow Instituto Affari Internazionali, Rome, 2015, Democracy Promotion and Foreign Policy: Identity and Interests in US, EU, and Non-Western Democracies, p. 33 Critical theory challenges the supposedly non-normative appearance of realism and other problem-solving theories by arguing that they are based on normative assumptions. At the same time it also provides a theoretical framework for analyzing the behavior of capitalist states. Of the many different strains of critical theory, transnational historical materialism can contribute to the analysis of democracy promotion. Transnational historical materialism relies on the theory and ideas of Antonio Gramsci, for whom hegemony is not only maintained through coercion, but more importantly so through the propagation of a common culture. The ruling class needs some degree of acceptance and thus creates an ideology and institutions that seem to represent all classes without actually harming the interests of the ruling class. In International Relations theory, Gramsci’s ideas were applied, for example, by Robert Cox, who argues that world hegemony “is expressed in universal norms, institutions and mechanisms which lay down general rules of behavior for states…rules which support the dominant mode of production.” In this logic, democracy promotion could be a policy to create a common culture in a hegemonic bloc. Indeed, William Robinson applies this to US democracy promotion and argues that the promotion of “low-intensity democracy” serves the interest of a transnational capitalist elite to “secure the underlying objective of maintaining essentially undemocratic societies inserted into an unjust international system.” The puzzle then turns from why democracy is promoted to why it has not always been promoted. Robinson explains the US shift from supporting dictatorship toward promoting democracy in South America in the 1980s by the rise of global capitalism. However, by focusing on economic rationales only, he omits other political-strategic, as well as normative, concerns and neglects that democratic ideas are not owned by the West, but also developed and find much resonance outside of it, as Amartya Sen (1999) has forcefully argued. Directory: assets assets -> Northern territory of australia assets -> Number: caveat in the [Will/Will and Codicil/Estate of] assets -> Invitation for Bid Calact/mbta for Standard Floor and Low Floor Rural Duty Vehicles ifb no. 12-03 November 14, 2012 assets -> 12 Step Retreats For Everyone in Twelve Step Recovery Ratner Fellowship assets -> 12 Step Retreats For Everyone in Twelve Step Recovery Ratner Fellowship assets -> Sigaccess annual Report assets -> Central Government is expected to ask the seventh pay commission to consider merging 50% dearness allowance assets -> List of accessible executive records assets -> Emergency telephone numbers Call toll-free from anywhere in France Download 2.51 Mb. Share with your friends:
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