Introductory notes
| DOI | 10.1177/0047117813489655 |
| Author | Milja Kurki |
| Published date | 01 June 2013 |
| Date | 01 June 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Forum: democracy and world order |
International Relations
27(2) 226 –257
© The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/0047117813489655
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Forum: Democracy and world
order
Introductory notes
Milja Kurki
Aberystwyth University, UK
This forum brings together some of the most interesting critical theoretical analysts of
‘democracy promotion’ and ‘good governance’ with the aim of providing us a picture of
the nature, functions and modes of democracy promotion in today’s global order.
Attention is specifically paid to the ‘conceptions of democracy’ that are promoted today
and what these tell us of democracy promotion as a policy agenda in a rapidly changing
world order.
At the turn of the century, two of the authors, William I. Robinson and Rita
Abrahamsen, published renowned monographs on democracy promotion of the United
States and of international financial institutions (IFIs), respectively. Robinson’s
Promoting Polyarchy1 argued that the United States’ democracy support was not a benign
exercise aiming at the spread of freedom and prosperity but rather an instrument of US
foreign policy, which facilitated the control of subject populations in developing coun-
tries at a time when popular insurrections and calls for democracy were becoming more
widespread and, thus, made it more difficult for the United States to simply continue
supporting ‘authoritarian’ states. Rita Abrahamsen in her Disciplining Democracy,2 on
the other hand, investigated the nature and internal logics of IFIs’ actions in support of
good governance and argued that very specific politico-economic ideals, in line with
neo-liberal conceptions of society, came through in the IFIs’ actions, much to the detri-
ment of democracy in Africa itself.
In this forum, William I Robinson and Rita Abrahamsen revisit their earlier arguments
on democracy promotion. They reflect on where democracy promotion and good govern-
ance agendas are 10 or so years later. Crucially, how has democracy promotion changed
or shifted in its contours in recent years, if it has? Who or what drives the agenda today
in the context of the financial crises, new waves of democratic revolution and changing
Corresponding author:
Milja Kurki, Department of International Politics, University of Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth SY23 2FE, UK.
Email: mlk@aber.ac.uk
Forum
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