Syllabus 2023/2024

The course will be taught in-person

1. Introduction to the course – whither democratic governance in the world? (3.10.2023)

Bloc I - Theory

2. Defining key terms and conceptualizing democracy promotion (10.10.2023)

Discussion: Types and approaches to democracy assistance

Compulsory reading 1: Jeffrey Kopstein, "The transatlantic divide over democracy promotion", The Washington Quarterly 29 (2), 2006: 85-98.
Recommended reading 1: Thomas Carothers, "Democracy assistance: political vs. developmental?" Journal of Democracy 20 (1), 2009: 5-19.
Recommended reading 2: Adrian Leftwich, "Democracy and development: Is there institutional incompatibility?" Democratization 12 (5), 2005: 686-703.

3. What is being promoted? The contestability of liberalism (17.10.2023)

Discussion: Models of democracy

Compulsory reading: Sheri Berman, "The past and future of social democracy and the consequences for democracy promotion" in Christopher Hobson and Milja Kurki (eds.), The Conceptual Politics of Democracy Promotion (New York: Routledge, 2012), 68-84.
Recommended reading 1: Robert Dahl, Shapiro, Ian, and Cheibub, José Antonio (eds.) Democracy Sourcebook (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), chapter 1: "Defining Democracy", 1-54.
Recommended reading 2: Milja Kurki, "Democracy and Conceptual Contestability: Reconsidering Conceptions of Democracy in Democracy Promotion", International Studies Review 12 (3), 2010: 363–364.

4. What is being promoted? The contestability of democracy (24.10.2023)

Discussion: Strengthening authoritarians through democracy promotion?

Compulsory reading 1: Brian Klaas, "Introduction: Accessory to Authoritarianism", The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding and Abetting the Decline of Democracy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 1-21.
Recommended reading 1: Annika Elena Poppe, "Harmony and Resilience: US Democracy Promotion's Basic Premises", Foreign Policy Analysis 15 (4), 2019: 530-547.
Recommended reading 2: Jonathan Monten, "The Roots of the Bush Doctrine: Power, Nationalism, and Democracy Promotion in U.S. Strategy", International Security 29 (4): 2005, 112-156.

5. Responsibility, morality and ethics – theories supporting democracy promotion (31.10.2023)

Discussion: Why do democracies promote democracy beyond their borders?

Compulsory reading: Alex Gourevitch, “Neo-Wilsonianism: The limits of American ethical foreign policy” in David Chandler and Volker Heins (eds.) Rethinking Ethical Foreign Policy Pitfalls, possibilities and paradoxes (London: Routledge, 2007).
Recommended reading 1: Bruce Russet, "The Fact of Democratic Peace" in Michael E. Brown, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, Steven E. Miller (eds.), Debating the Democratic Peace (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1999), 58-82.
Recommended reading 2: Adam Przeworski and Limongi Fernando in "Modernization: Theories and Facts", World Politics 49 (2), 1997: 155-183.
Recommended reading 3: John M. Owen, "How Liberalism Produces Democratic Peace" in Michael E. Brown, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, Steven E. Miller (eds.), Debating the Democratic Peace, (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1999), 116-154.

6. Democratic transitions – processes and critical junctures (7.11.2023)

Discussion: Social consequences of political transformations

Compulsory reading: Miroslav Vanek and Pavel Mucke, Velvet Revolutions: An Oral History of Czech Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), chapters 1 and 5, "I Want to be Free! Civil and Political Rights" (15-42) and "From Mandatory Employment to Unemployment" (114-144).
Recommended reading 1: Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, "Democratization and the Danger of War" in Michael E. Brown, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, Steven E. Miller (eds.), Debating the Democratic Peace, (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1999), 301-334.
Recommended reading 2: Daniel Chirot, "Does Democracy Work in Deeply Divided Societies?" in Is Democracy Exportable?, edited by Zoltan Barany, and Robert G. Moser (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

7. Non-Western perspectives on liberalism, democracy and their promotion (14.11.2023)

Discussion: Flaws in liberal democracy according to non-Western thinkers

Compulsory reading: Bai Tongdong, "A Confucian Improvement of Democracy", New Perspectives Quarterly 29 (1), 2012: 12-39.
Recommended reading: Bhikhu Parekh, "The Cultural Particularity of Liberal Democracy", Political Studies 40 (s1), 1992: 160-175.

Bloc II - Practice

8. How is democracy promoted: democracy promotion instruments and institutions (21.11.2023)

Discussion: Undermining of democracy promotion efforts by third parties

Compulsory reading 1: Oz Hassan, "Undermining the transatlantic democracy agenda? The Arab Spring and Saudi Arabia's counteracting democracy strategy", Democratization 22 (3), 2015: 479-495.
Recommended reading 1: Melinda A. Haring, Reforming the Democracy Bureaucracy (Philadelphia PA: Foreign Policy Research Institute, 2013).
Recommended reading 2: Nelli Babayan, "The return of the empire? Russia's counteraction to transatlantic democracy promotion in its near abroad," Democratization 22 (3), 2015: 438-458.
Recommended reading 3: Tanja A. Börzel and Thomas Risse, "Venus Approaching Mars? The European Union's Approaches to Democracy Promotion in Comparative Perspective" in Amichai Magen, Michael McFaul and Thomas Risse, Promoting Democracy and the Rule of Law: American and European Strategies (New York: Palgrave-McMillan, 2009), 34-60.

9. Civil society and non-governmental organizations as democracy promotors (28.11.2023)

Discussion: Women and democratic transitions

Compulsory reading: Georgina Waylen, “Gender and Transitions: What do we Know?”, Democratization 10 (1), 2003: 157-178.
Recommended reading 1: Shirin M. Rai, "Gender and democratization: Or what does democracy mean for women in the Third World?" Democratization 1 (1), 1994: 209-228.
Recommended reading 2: Sharon L. Wolchik, "Gender and the Politics of Transition in the Czech Republic and Slovakia" in Jane S. Jaquette and Sharon L. Wolchik (eds.), Women and Democracy: Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe (Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998).

10. Case studies I - promoting democracy in Iraq and Ukraine (5.12.2023)

Discussion: What went wrong with the attempt to build democracy in Iraq?

Compulsory reading: Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "Control Freak", Imperial Life in The Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (New York NY: Vintage Books, 2007), 63-94.
Recommended reading 1: Jeff Bridoux and Malcolm Russell, "Liberal Democracy Promotion in Iraq: A Model for the Middle East and North Africa?" Foreign Policy Analysis 9 (3), 2013: 327-346.
Recommended reading 2: Iryna Solonenko, "External democracy promotion in Ukraine: the role of the European Union," Democratization 16 (4), 2009: 709-731.

11. Case studies II – promoting democracy in Afghanistan and Czechoslovakia (12.12.2023)

Discussion: How is “nation-building” related to democracy promotion?

Compulsory reading: Jennifer Murtazashvili, “Gaming the state: consequences of contracting out state building in Afghanistan”, Central Asian Survey 34 (1), 2015: 78-92.
Recommended reading 1: Kelsey Landau, Norman Eisen and Mikuláš Pešta, “The Aftermath of Revolution: U.S. Support for Czech and Slovak Liberal Democracy, 1989–Present” in Norman Eisen (ed.) Democracy’s Defenders: U.S. Embassy Prague, the Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, and Its Aftermath (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2020).
Recommended reading 2: Astri Suhrke, “Statebuilding in Afghanistan: a contradictory engagement”, Central Asian Survey 32 (3), 2013: 271-286.

12. To promote or not to p