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Papers by Sonja Grimm

Um Menschenwürde und die Freiheit des Individuums zu wahren, muss jedem Menschen die Chance gewäh... more Um Menschenwürde und die Freiheit des Individuums zu wahren, muss jedem Menschen die Chance gewährt werden, am Zustandekommen politischer Entscheidungen zu partizipieren. Im transzendentalen Tausch erkennen Individuen gegenseitig an, dass sie ein rationales, wohlüberlegtes Interesse am Zugang zur politischen Arena, nicht zuletzt am Zugang zu politischen Ämtern haben. Politische Teilhaberechte lassen sich folglich wie die libera-len Abwehrrechte philosophisch begründen und

Democratization, 2008

ABSTRACT

Democracy promotion is an integral component of European foreign policy. However, European democr... more Democracy promotion is an integral component of European foreign policy. However, European democracy promotion is less effective than assumed and hoped for. Sonja Grimm offers four explanations: (1) the absence of a consensus among democracy promoters about policy objectives, and the interference of hidden agendas, (2) the neglect of rational interests of domestic actors and the dynamics of the external-domestic interplay in democracy promotion, (3) the adaption of authoritarian incumbents to the domestic and international threats to democratize, and (4) the existence of negative external actors interested in promoting autocracy and undermining democratic transition.

Der Handtuchbeitrag "Militärische Intervention" definiert den Begriff, untersucht die Motive mili... more Der Handtuchbeitrag "Militärische Intervention" definiert den Begriff, untersucht die Motive militärischer Intervention und fragt nach ihrer Legitimation.

Demokratieförderung ist Transformationsunterstützung. Der Handtuchbeitrag untersucht die deutsche... more Demokratieförderung ist Transformationsunterstützung. Der Handtuchbeitrag untersucht die deutsche Demokratieförderung mit besonderem Blick auf den Arabischen Frühling.

Democracy promotion is an integral component of European foreign policy. However, the 1990s’ rosy... more Democracy promotion is an integral component of European foreign policy. However, the 1990s’ rosy proliberalization
rhetoric faded with the failed interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the bumpy integration of the Western Balkans into
the EU and the persistence of authoritarianism in the Arab world despite the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring. This
article suggests four explanations for the observed lack of effectiveness of European democracy promotion: (1) the
absence of a consensus among democracy promoters about policy objectives, and the interference of hidden agendas; (2)
the neglect of rational interests of domestic actors and the dynamics of the external–domestic interplay in democracy promotion; (3) the adaption of authoritarian incumbents to the domestic and international threats to democratize, and (4) the
existence of negative external actors interested in promoting autocracy and undermining democratic transition.

This article assesses total EU financial flows towards the Western Balkans between 1991 and 2010.... more This article assesses total EU financial flows towards the Western Balkans between 1991 and 2010. It shows
that, in the short term, the majority of support has been allocated to humanitarian assistance and socioeconomic
development. Although the EU has declared its interest in democracy promotion, democracy
assistance ranks only third on the list of its financial expenditures in the Western Balkans. Therefore, although
EU financial aid is consistent with official EU programmes, it is inadequate in the post-conflict context of the
EU candidate and potential candidate countries that require support for democratisation.

This article examines the effectiveness of UN peacebuilding missions in democratizing war-torn st... more This article examines the effectiveness of UN peacebuilding missions in democratizing war-torn states, emphasizing those missions that include democracy promotion components in their mandates.
Based on a multinominal logistic regression, we reveal that democratization is significantly more likely if a UN peacebuilding mission is deployed. Furthermore, regimes categorized as more
liberal at the outset have an increased risk of revealing antidemocratization trends over the postwar period. Oil wealth impedes democratization and clear victory of one conflict party makes regime transitions more likely, yet in both directions. Descriptive statistics suggest that an increase in the mission’s capacities may be conducive to democratization.

Conflicting objectives are often problematized as challenges to the effectiveness of internationa... more Conflicting objectives are often problematized as challenges to the effectiveness of international democracy promotion. However, systematic research about their emergence and effects is still missing. This special issue addresses this research gap and seeks to provide conceptual and empirical answers in the field of conflicting objectives in international democracy
promotion. The authors represented in this special issue investigate (post-) conflict societies, developing countries, and authoritarian regimes, attempting to identify the patterns of conflicting objectives in democracy promotion, the reasons for their emergence, and their consequences. This introduction presents a conceptual framework that pursues four aims: first, it
differentiates between two types of conflicting objectives (intrinsic and extrinsic); second, it offers an approach for identification of their phases of emergence; third, it proposes reasons for their emergence; and fourth, it discusses how political actors deal with these conflicting objectives. The
empirical findings of the contributions to this special issue illustrate and substantiate the theoretical and conceptual reflections.

The paper discusses the challenges of democratization in post-conflict societies. It studies succ... more The paper discusses the challenges of democratization in post-conflict societies. It studies successes and failures of post-conflict democratization under external oversight and suggests explanations why so many attempts fail.

Der Anteil demokratisch verfasster Staaten nimmt in den letzten beiden Jahrzehnten zu. Nach den e... more Der Anteil demokratisch verfasster Staaten nimmt in den letzten beiden Jahrzehnten zu. Nach den erfolgreichen Demokratisierungsprozessen der 1990er Jahre in Mittel- und Osteuropa sowie in Lateinamerika mobilisierten Regimegegner und Oppositionsbewegungen auch im Kaukasus, in Asien und zuletzt im arabischen Raum gegen autokratische Herrscher und forderten demokratische Reformen. Sie erhalten dabei zunehmend Unterstützung durch die internationale Demokratieförderung, eine kritische internationale Zivilgesellschaft und durch neue völkerrechtliche Debatten um ein „Recht auf Demokratie“. Dennoch ist Demokratisierung nach wie vor kein Selbstläufer. Der Erfolg der Demokratisierung hängt unverändert von der Bereitschaft politischer Eliten ab, das politische System intern zu liberalisieren und demokratische Regeln einzuhalten. Externe Akteure setzen zwar in immer größerem Ausmaß wichtige Anreize für die Liberalisierung politischer Systeme und den Aufbau demokratischer Institutionen. Jedoch können externe Demokratieförderer und günstige Strukturen einen Mangel an Demokratisierungswillen nach wie vor nicht kompensieren.

This contribution studies the process of building an EU member state through democracy promotion ... more This contribution studies the process of building an EU member state through democracy promotion in the case of Croatia with a special focus on two reform initiatives in the field of Public Administration Reform (PAR). Croatia’s experience is representative of
intense efforts of the international community to overcome the consequences of violent
state dissolution and civil war. The EU in particular has assisted post-conflict democratization with diplomatic initiatives, the provision of aid, and political conditionality. The Croatian
political elite showed great willingness to implement democratic reforms, while at the same time remaining critical of what they viewed as ‘too much’ external interference in domestic state affairs. Based on 30 interviews with Croatian officials, Croatian civil society
actors, members of the EU delegation and other representatives of the international
donor community, we empirically assess progress and setbacks in Croatia’s public administration reform and explain why some reform initiatives have been successfully implemented
while others are still pending.

Although scholars and practitioners alike perceive ‘state fragility’ to be a key challenge for se... more Although scholars and practitioners alike perceive ‘state fragility’ to be a key challenge for security and development, there are significant variations in the definition of this phenomenon. This article analyses the European Union’s notion of ‘state fragility’. Based on a document analysis covering the years 2001–12 and expert interviews conducted in November 2012, the article reveals that the EU has not (yet) decided on a clear-cut definition of ‘state fragility’. Three factors explain this lack of decisiveness: the EU’s complex institutional framework, which impedes policy coherence; developments at the international level that require the EU’s compliance; and the organisation’s
diplomatic efforts to maintain cooperative relationships with
aid-recipient countries that have been labelled ‘fragile’. The result is conceptual ambiguity that potentially reduces the EU’s capacity to respond to fragile situations.

Seeking to explain the difficult cases of delayed democratic transition in theWestern Balkans, re... more Seeking to explain the difficult cases of delayed democratic transition in theWestern Balkans, recent
literature argues that ‘national identity’ significantly limits the effectiveness of external actors’
political conditionality. This argument is tested in this article by investigating Serbia’s co-operation
with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was demanded
by the United States and the European Union (EU). The findings show that incidents of Serbian
co-operation with the ICTY were not preceded by widespread national identity change; rather,
co-operation occurred when Serbia was faced with consistent external pressure and the immediate
prospect of small-scale rewards. Conditionality thus remained effective. These findings challenge
theoretical arguments that issues of national identity may impede external actors’ projection of
power, independently of domestic actors’ cost-benefit calculations. Moreover, they suggest that, in
the future, external actors such as the EU may continue to rely upon political conditionality for their
democratization agenda, even concerning domestically sensitive issue-areas.

In this contribution we conceptualize the under-investigated interplay between external and domes... more In this contribution we conceptualize the under-investigated interplay between
external and domestic actors in democracy promotion. We first propose a
typology of the instruments and means used both by external and domestic
actors to influence reform outputs and then trace these instruments’ effects
on outcomes, thereby expanding the existing concepts of domestic agency.
Although democracy promotion continues to be a rather asymmetric
relationship between the “donors” and “receivers” of aid and advice,
domestic actors employ a wide array of instruments to manage external
demands for reform, including diplomacy, take-over, slowdown,
modification, resistance, and emancipation. The article draws on a case
study of European Union democracy promotion within two reform
initiatives in the field of Public Administration Reform (PAR) in Croatia.

Democratization, 2008

ABSTRACT

The special issue ‘Fragile States: A Political Concept’ investigates the emergence, dissemination... more The special issue ‘Fragile States: A Political Concept’ investigates the emergence, dissemination and reception of the notion of ‘state fragility’. It analyses the process of conceptualisation, examining how the ‘fragile states’ concept was framed by policy makers to describe reality in accordance with their priorities in the !elds of development and security. The contributors to the issue investigate the instrumental use of the ‘state fragility’ label in the legitimisation of Western policy interventions in countries facing violence and profound poverty. They also emphasise the agency of actors ‘on the receiving end’, describing how the elites and governments in so-called ‘fragile states’ have incorporated and reinterpreted the concept to !t their own political agendas. A !rst set of articles examines the role played by the World Bank, the OECD, the European Union and the g7+ coalition of ‘fragile states’ in the transnational diffusion of the concept, which is understood as a critical element in the new discourse on international aid and security. A second set of papers employs three case studies (Sudan, Indonesia and Uganda) to explore the processes of appropriation, reinterpretation and the strategic use of the ‘fragile state’ concept."