International democracy promotion as a political ideology: upsurge and retreat

The meta-narrative of ‘democracy promotion’ rose to international ascendancy in the 1990s. The fall of the Berlin Wall marked its apparently unstoppable advance; the terrorist assaults of 11 September 2001 its culmination and subsequent retreat. This article interprets the post-2001 retreat of democracy promotion as a foreseeable consequence of the 1990s overreach. A threefold argument is set out here. First, that in its ascendant phase, this meta-narrative displayed core features of a ‘strong’ political ideology. Second, while events since 2001 have proved it partly wanting, foundational reassessments have been blocked by the prevalence of binary analysis, counterposing autocracy and democracy, and democracy promotion and prevention. Third, it reviews the merits of using tripartite schemas to understand the ‘democracy prevention’ or ‘anti-democracy promotion’ responses elicited by the ideology and practice of democracy promotion. It is argued that, however clear in theory, binary polarities are never absolute opposites in practice and that contemporary ‘democracy prevention’ cannot be seen as a straightforward mirror image of 1990s orthodoxy about democracy promotion. It concludes that tripartite classifications open the door to ‘second best’ predictions and prescriptions. Such an approach permits a more pluralist and self-critical take on the prospects for advancing political freedom than binary analysis, and thereby repositions the debate in a more intellectually defensible manner.