Interrogating the European Union's democracy promotion agenda: Discursive configurations of 'democracy' from the middle east

European Foreign Affairs Review

Volumn 15, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 611-628

  Pace, Michelle ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85049171534     PISSN: 13846299     EISSN: 18758223     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.54648/eerr2010044     Document Type: Article

References (81)

1. S.E. Ibrahim, Egypt, Islam and Democracy (Cairo: Cairo Press, 1996)
2. D. Pool, 'The Links between Economic and Political Liberalization', in Economic and Political Liberalization in the Middle East, eds T. Niblock & E. Murphy (London: British Academic Press, 1993), 40-54
3. Commission of the European Communities, 'The European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights' (Brussels, 2001).
4. See also N. Pratt, Democracy & Authoritarianism in the Arab World (Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007).
5. R. Hinnebusch, 'Authoritarian Persistence, Democratization Theory and the Middle East: An Overview and Critique', Democratization 13, no. 3 (2006): 373-395.
6. Interview with Osama Ghazali Harb, Democratic Front party (Cairo, 31 Mar. 2008)
7. see also O. Roy, The Politics of Chaos in the Middle East (London: Hurst & Company, 2007).
8. Securitization refers to a process whereby an issue, such as Islam, is presented as 'posing an existential threat to a designated referent object', which then requires exceptional measures and/or emergency action to deal with it. This securitized issue is thereby removed from the realm of politics to the realm of security. See B. Buzan, O. Wæver, & J. de Wilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998), 21.
9. M. Pace, 'A "Modern" Islamist Democracy? Perceptions of Democratisation in Palestine: the Case of Hamas', paper presented at the BRISMES conference (Leeds, 4-6 Jul. 2008).
10. T. Diez & M. Pace, 'Normative Power Europe and Conflict Transformation', in Normative Power Europe: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives, ed. R. Whitman (London & New York: Palgrave MacMillan, April 2011).
11. EU Election Observation Mission West Bank and Gaza, 'Statement of Preliminary Conclusions and Findings: Open and Well-Run Parliamentary Elections Strengthen Palestinian Commitment to Democratic Institutions', [Quartet statement on Pal elections, London 30 Jan. 2006] Council S031/06., 3 Oct. 2008.
12. Interviews with Khalil Shikaki, Palestinian Center for Policy & Survey Research (Ramallah, 4 Sep. 2007)
13. Nasr Al-Din Sha'r, Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, National Unity Government (Nablus, 10 Sep. 2007)
14. Diaa Rashwan and Amr al Shobky, both at Al Ahram Centre (Cairo, 26 and 25 Mar. 2008)
15. Abou El ElaMady, Al Wasat Party (Cairo, 24 Mar. 2008).
16. It is important to clarify that this is not such a recent development. The process actually started back in the 1970s and not only in the Arab world (and has recently received a further boost). See, G. Kepel, The Revenge of God. The Resurgence of Islam, Christianity and Judaism in the Modern World (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994).
17. M. Pace, P. Seeberg, & F. Cavatorta, 'The EU's Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean: A Critical Inside-Out Approach', Democratization 16, Special Issue, no. 1 (2009): 3-19.
18. P.J. Burgess, 'Europe as a Community of Values: The Question of Security', Paper Presented at UACES Conference (Edinburgh, 1-3 Sep. 2008).
19. M. Pace, 'Paradoxes and Contradictions in EU Democracy Promotion in the Mediterranean: The Limits of EU Normative Power', Democratization 16, no. 1 (2009): 39-58.
20. I. Manners, 'Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?', Journal of Common Market Studies 40, no. 2 (2002): 235-258.
21. F. Bicchi, 'Our Size Fits All: Normative Power Europe and the Mediterranean', Journal of European Public Policy 13, no. 2 (2006): 286-303
22. A.E. Juncos, 'Assessing the Effectiveness of the EU as a Normative Power in the Western Balkans: The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina'
23. E.J. Stewart, 'Mind the Normative Gap? The EU in the South Caucasus', in ed. R. Whitman, n. 8 above
24. M. Pace, 'The Construction of EU Normative Power', Journal of Common Market Studies 45, no. 5 (2007): 1041-1064, to mention just a few.
25. B. Powel, 'A Clash of Norms: Normative Power and EU Democracy Promotion in Tunisia', Democratization 16, no. 1 (2009): 193-214.
26. T. Diez, 'Constructing the Self and Changing Others: Reconsidering "Normative Power Europe"', Millennium: Journal of International Studies 33, no. 3 (2005): 613-636.
27. B.A. Roberson, The Middle East and Europe: The Power Deficit (London: Routledge, 1998).
28. M. Pace, 'Norm Shifting from EMP to ENP: The EU as a Norm Entrepreneur in the South?', Cambridge Review of International Affairs 20, no. 4 (2007): 657-673.
29. R. Youngs, 'Normative Dynamics and Strategic Interests in the EU's External Identity', Journal of Common Market Studies 42, no. 3 (2004): 415-435
30. A. Hyde-Price, 'Normative Power Europe: A Realist Critique', Journal of European Public Policy 13, no. 2 (2006): 217-234
31. F. Cavatorta, 'Engaging Authoritarianism. The European Union, Syria and Normative Power', paper presented at the UACES conference (Edinburgh, 1-3 Sep. 2008).
32. M. Pace, The Politics of Regional Identity. Meddling with the Mediterranean (London: Routledge, 2006)
33. F. Bicchi, European Foreign Policy Making Toward the Mediterranean (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
34. A. Storey & V. Durac, '"Normative or Realist" versus "Normative and Realist": The Case of the European Union and Morocco', paper given at the EUSA conference (Los Angeles, 23-25 Apr. 2009).
35. S. Vasilyan, 'The EU as a Conflict Dealer in the South Caucasus: Civilian/Normative but Immoral?', paper presented at the UACES conference (Edinburgh, 1-3 Sep. 2008).
36. This reasoning is based not least on an eighteenth century European Enlightenment discourse. During earlier times, Europe witnessed revolts, wars, and famines. It is thus believed that with man's enlightenment, reasoning, and progress, liberalism emerged, which, in turn, brought about peaceful relations between European states. And this enlightenment logic is precisely what the EU seeks to export in the MENA, but not until the latter half of the twentieth century. S. Zweig, The World of Yesterday: An Autobiography (London: Cassell, 1943), 14.
37. Interviews with Dr Basim Naim, Ministry of Youth, Sport and Health, and Dr Ahmed Yousef, Office of the Prime Minister (Gaza, 11 Sep. 2007).
38. A. Hovdenak, 'Hamas in Transition: The Failure of Sanctions', Democratization 16, Special Issue, no. 1 (2009): 59-80.
39. Diez & Pace, 2011, n. 8 above. MB officials also expected the international community to respond positively to Hamas' moderate positions. Interviews with Mohammed Habib and Esam Elerian, Headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood (Cairo, 26 and 27 Mar. 2008).
40. Here I borrow Aletta J Norval's concept of political grammar, meaning the vocabularies we use and the practices we engage in. On the grammar of democracy specifically, Norval argues that this should be 'understood as delimiting a horizon of what is sayable and doable at any given point in time, as well as what we may expect from others and what others may expect from us in the articulation of claims upon one another'. See A.J. Norval, Aversive Democracy. Inheritance and Originality in the Democratic Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 8.
41. M. Pace, 'Liberal or Social Democracy? Aspects of the EU's Democracy Promotion Agenda in the Middle East' (Stockholm: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2009), , 23 Dec. 2009.
42. A. Bayat, Making Islam Democratic. Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2007).
43. See A.S. Ahmed, Postmodernism and Islam. Predicament and Promise (London & New York: Routledge, 1992).
44. See, e.g., W. Shepard, 'Islam and Ideology: Towards a Typology', International Journal of Middle East Studies 19, no. 3 (1987): 307-335.
45. I. Harik also provides a similar typology in his Democratic Theory and Modernity: Western and Islamic Perspectives (London & Beirut: Al Saqi Publishers, 2001). For all references in Arabic, the author wishes to thank Haya AlFarra and Hazem Kandil for research support on these sources.
46. F. Rahman, 'Islamic Modernism: Its Scope, Method and Alternatives', International Journal of Middle East Studies 1, no. 4 (1970): 311.
47. Interview with Refaat Al Said, Tagammu Party headquarters (Cairo, 22 Mar. 2008).
48. Interview with Dr Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Professor of Political Sociology, Indiana University (currently in exile in Turkey) (London, 6 Mar. 2008).
49. Interview with Ibrahim, London. For a further critical analysis on the politics of fear in EU external relations, see J. Huysmans, The Politics of Insecurity. Fear, Migration and Asylum in the EU (Oxford & New York: Routledge, 2006). Huysmans explores how fear has become a practice and technique in EU governance of its neighbouring areas. The politics of framing fear through external relations explains how EU-MENA relations are modulated through EU rational choices.
50. N. Abercrombie, S. Hill, & B.S. Turner, The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology (London: Penguin Books, 1994).
51. Interview with Dr Rafik Habib, a prominent Coptic thinker (Cairo, 25 Mar. 2008).
52. See also Rafik Habib, 'Islamic Sharia for Copts only!', Almesryoon (newspaper in Arabic), 22 Apr. 2008, .
53. T. Al Beshri, What is Modernity? (Cairo: Dar AlShorouk, 2005).
54. See also L.D. Lybarger, Identity & Religion in Palestine. The Struggle between Islamism & Secularism in the Occupied Territories (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2007) for a thorough investigation of the development and changes in Palestinian political identity over the past decades.
55. Interview with Nasr Al-Din Sha'r, Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister in NUG government (Nablus, 10 Sep. 2007).
56. See W.E. Paterson & I. Campbell, Social Democracy in Post-War Europe (London and New York: MacMillan, 1974).
57. See also A. Black, 'The Difference between Cultures: What Can We Learn From a Comparative History of Political Thought', paper given at the Social and Political Thought Seminar Series, Department of Sociology (University of Warwick, 27 Oct. 2008).
58. See A. A. Jamal, Barriers to Democracy. The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007). Some of the findings of the other contributions to this volume also provide evidence for this.
59. See, e.g., M. Selim Al-'Awa Fi al-Nizam al-Siyasi le al-Dawla al-Islamiya (On the Political Order of the Islamic State) (Cairo: Dar al-Shorouk, 2006)
60. M. Selim Al-'Awa Al-Din wa al-Watan: Fusul fei 'ilaqat al-Muslimeen bei ghir al-Muslimeen (Religion and the Motherland: Chapters in the Relationship between Muslims and Non-Muslims) (Cairo: Nahdat Misr, 2006).
61. See R. Wright, 'Islam and Liberal Democracy: Two Visions of Reformation', Journal of Democracy 7, no. 2 (1996): 64-75.
62. Interview with Gamal Al Banna, Islamic scholar (Cairo, 24 Mar. 2008).
63. T.G. Ash, 'We are Making a Fatal Mistake by Ignoring the Dissidents within Islam', The Guardian, 15 Mar. 2007, , 9 Oct. 2008.
64. J. Voll, Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1995).
65. C. Alexander, 'Opportunities, Organizations and Ideas: Islamists and Workers in Tunisia and Algeria', International Journal of Middle East Studies 32, no. 4 (2000): 465-490
66. M.E. Hamdi, The Politicisation of Islam: Essay on Democratic Governance (Westview: Boulder, CO., 1998).
67. The author conducted a private interview with Muhammad Sa'id al-'Ashmawy (Cairo on 31 Mar. 2008).
68. See C. Fluehr-Lobban (ed.), Against Islamic Extremism: The Writings of Muhammad Sa'id al-'Ashmawy (Florida: University Press of Florida, 2002).
69. See also H. Goddard, 'Islam and Democracy', Political Studies Quarterly 73, no. 1 (2002).
70. D. Edgar, 'Preachers of Pluralism', The Guardian, 29 Oct. 2008, 32.
71. Dr Mohamed Kadry Said refers to this democratization process as a path of continuous negotiations and bargaining for people's rights and freedoms. Interview with Kadry Said, Al Ahram Centre (Cairo, 23 Mar. 2008).
72. Interview with Osama Ghazali Harb, Democratic Front party (Cairo, 31 Mar. 2008).
73. Interview with Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Professor of Political Sociology, Indiana University, 6 Mar. 2008.
74. R. Foot, 'Human Rights and Global Governance: Efficacy, Power and Legitimacy?', paper given at the POLSIS Departmental Seminar Programme, Autumn Series (University of Birmingham, 8 Oct. 2008).
75. Communication between Aletta Norval and the author, 24 Oct. 2008.
76. European Parliament, 'Resolution of 10 May 2007 on reforms in the Arab world: what strategy should the European Union adopt?', P6-TA (2007)0179 (Brussels, 2007).
77. J. Derrida, Politics of Friendship, trans. George Collins (London: Verso, 1997), 306.
78. See, e.g., S. Lawson, 'Democracy and the Problem of Cultural Relativism: Normative Issues for International Politics', in Democracy and International Relations. Critical Theories/Problematic Practices, ed. Helen Smith (Basingstoke: MacMillan Press, 2000), 71-89.
79. See M. Pace & P. Seeberg (eds), 'The European Union's Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean: A Critical Inside-Out Approach', Democratization 16, Special Issue, no. 1 (2009).
80. Quoted in Abdel-Rahman Hussein, 'Landmark Sexual Harassment Case Ends in Three-Year Sentence', Daily News Egypt, , 31 Oct. 2008.
81. See Norval, 2007, n. 30 above, and S. Lawson, Tradition Versus Democracy in the South Pacific. Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).