The Western Democracy Promotion Agenda in Egypt: The Persistence of the Democracy-Stability Dilemma

Abstract

If the process of integration into the global capitalist economy influenced the democratization process in Egypt indirectly through its impacts on state-society relationships, the foreign policies of Western great powers have had a more direct influence. During the Cold War, the question of democracy-promotion had been relegated to a lower priority on American and European foreign policy agendas. Following the Cold War era, the collapse of communism was marked as the ideological triumph of liberal democracy. Promoted as the most enlightened form of social organization across the globe, the normative role of liberal democracy in development was increasingly celebrated. This prompted the United States and the EU to address the question of democracy-promotion as one of the important foreign policy objectives toward Third World countries, including Egypt. This greater interest in the promotion of democracy manifested itself through a variety of forms, including the allocation of financial assistance to civil society organizations focusing on the fields of democracy and human rights , the initiation of partnership projects and policy initiatives to promote democratic transitions, and the use of traditional and public diplomacy infused with normative references to democratic governance and human rights.