Organizing Democracy: How International Organizations Assist New Democracies (Chicago Series on International and Domestic Institutions)

In the past twenty-five years, a number of countries have made the transition to democracy. The support of international organizations is essential to success on this difficult path. Yet, despite extensive research into the relationship between democratic transitions and membership in international organizations, the mechanisms underlying the relationship remain unclear. With Organizing Democracy, Paul Poast and Johannes Urpelainen argue that leaders of transitional democracies often have to draw on the support of international organizations to provide the public goods and expertise needed to consolidate democratic rule. Looking at the Baltic states’ accession to NATO, Poast and Urpelainen provide a compelling and statistically rigorous account of the sorts of support transitional democracies draw from international institutions. They also show that, in many cases, the leaders of new democracies must actually create new international organizations to better serve their needs, since they may not qualify for help from existing ones. Contents 6 Preface 8 1. Introduction 10 Part I. A Theory of Democratization and International Organizations 28 2. From Democratization to International Organizations 30 3. From International Organizations to Democratic Consolidation 51 Part II. Quantitative Evidence 76 4. Quantitative Evidence on Forming versus Joining 78 5. Quantitative Evidence onDemocratic Consolidation and International Organizations 110 Part III. Qualitative Evidence 132 6. The Baltic Experience 134 7. Forming, Remodeling, and Reforming 168 8. Conclusion 194 Notes 210 Bibliography 228 Index 252 Emerging democracies need a lot of support from international institutions, and this book analyzes the ways those organizations succeed and fail in providing that assistance.