Johannes Gerschewski and Alex Dukalskis have edited a special issue of “Contemporary Politics” on the topic “Legitimation in Autocracies” to push forward the debate about a factor that has gone almost unnoticed by the recent wave of comparative authoritarianism: autocratic legitimation.

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More than six years after the wave of popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, it is clear that the ‘Arab Spring’ has not put an end to the exceptional persistence of authoritarianism in the region. At the same time, it has highlighted the shortcomings of international democracy promotion efforts vis-à-vis these authoritarian regimes in the region.

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In September 2009, the US Embassy in La Paz declared that it would phase out USAID’s democracy program in Bolivia. Following years of complaining about alleged US attempts to destabilize democracy in the country, the Bolivian government had instructed USAID to close its democracy promotion activities in the country, …

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Demokratieförderung gilt vielen Beobachterinnen und Beobachtern als aktive Friedenspolitik – nicht zuletzt aufgrund des Befundes, dass Demokratien sehr selten Kriege untereinander führen. Gleichzeitig ist aggressive, teilweise mit militärischen Mitteln betriebene Demokratieförderpolitik, ganz offensichtlich kein friedfertiges Unterfangen. Glaubt man Trumps Wahlkampfaussagen, so steht die US-Demokratieförderpolitik vor einer deutlichen Wende.

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The author identifies five sets of individual, societal, cultural, political and spatial factors that help to identify patterns of democracy promotion’s context. Such patterns serve to better understand and explain democracy promotion in the future. They inform both, research and policy-making.

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