The taming of democracy assistance : why democracy promotion does not confront dictators

Few Government Programs That Aid Democracy Abroad Today Seek To Foster Regime Change. Technical Programs That Do Not Confront Dictators Are More Common Than The Aid To Dissidents And Political Parties That Once Dominated The Field. What Explains This 'taming' Of Democracy Assistance? This Book Offers The First Analysis Of That Puzzle. In Contrast To Previous Research On Democracy Aid, It Focuses On The Survival Instincts Of The Non-governmental Organizations (ngos) That Design And Implement Democracy Assistance. To Survive, Sarah Bush Argues That Ngos Seek Out Tamer Types Of Aid, Especially As They Become More Professional. Diverse Evidence - Including Three Decades Of New Project-level Data, Case Studies Of Democracy Assistance In Jordan And Tunisia, And Primary Documents Gathered From Ngo Archives - Supports The Argument. This Book Provides New Understanding Of Foreign Influence And Moral Actors In World Politics, With Policy Implications For Democracy In The Middle East.-- I. Introduction And Argument -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Argument: Structure, Agency, And Democracy Promotion -- 3. Tame Democracy Assistance: What It Is And Why It Matters -- Ii. Testing The Argument -- 4. Delegation And The Allocation Of Democracy Assistance -- 5. Changes In American Grant-making -- 6. Creating The Democracy Establishment -- 7. Jordan: Aid In The Shadow Of Geopolitics -- 8. Tunisia: Reform After Revolution -- Iii. Conclusions -- 9. Should Democracy Promoters Be Set Free? Sarah Sunn Bush. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Few government programs that aid democracy abroad today seek to foster regime change. Technical programs that do not confront dictators are more common than the aid to dissidents and political parties that once dominated the field. What explains this 'taming' of democracy assistance? This book offers the first analysis of that puzzle. In contrast to previous research on democracy aid, it focuses on the survival instincts of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that design and implement democracy assistance. To survive, Sarah Bush argues that NGOs seek out tamer types of aid, especially as they become more professional. Diverse evidence - including three decades of new project-level data, case studies of democracy assistance in Jordan and Tunisia, and primary documents gathered from NGO archives - supports the argument. This book provides new understanding of foreign influence and moral actors in world politics, with policy implications for democracy in the Middle East.-- Provided by publisher Content: Part I. Introduction and Argument: 1. Introduction 2. The argument: structure, agency, and democracy promotion 3. Tame democracy assistance: what it is and why it matters Part II. Testing the Argument: 4. Delegation and the allocation of democracy assistance 5. Changes in American grant-making 6. Creating the democracy establishment 7. Jordan: aid in the shadow of geopolitics 8. Tunisia: reform after revolution Part III. Conclusions: 9. Should democracy promoters be set free? Part IV. Appendices and References: A. Descriptions of categories of democracy assistance B. List of interviewee affiliations C. Major organizations in the democracy establishment D. Data appendix. The Taming of Democracy Assistance seeks to explain why few government programs that aid democracy abroad today seek to foster regime change. Rather than providing aid to dissidents, Sarah Bush argues that programs have been 'tamed', focusing on issues such as women's rights and local governance.