Promoting Democracy, Reinforcing Authoritarianism
US and European Policy in Jordan

A detailed examination of the role of US and European 'democracy promoters' in Jordan based on a diverse range of original source material.

Benjamin Schuetze (Author)

9781108737012, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 October 2021

291 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.443 kg

'Western democracy promotion programs in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have been state of the art for decades. In this important study, Schuetze blows the lid off by examining what democracy promotion actually does. Based on a wealth of interviews and striking observational evidence, Schuetze frames democracy promotion policies as intimately tied to monarchical absolutism in Jordan.' Pete W. Moore, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio

Appearing against the backdrop of Jordan's remarkable levels of authoritarian stability and accounting for Jordan being one of the highest recipients of US and European 'democracy promotion' funding, Promoting Democracy, Reinforcing Authoritarianism examines what external 'democracy promoters' actually do when they promote democracy. By examining why Jordanian authoritarianism is so stable, not despite but in part because of external attempts at 'democracy promotion', Benjamin Schuetze demonstrates the depth of Orientalist attitudes among 'democracy promoters'. In highlighting the undermining of democratic values as they become circumscribed by the free market and security concerns, Schuetze suggests that although US and European policy in Jordan comes under the cloak of a universal morality which claims the surmounting of authoritarianism as its objective, its effect is not that different to traditional modes of imperial support for authoritarian regimes. As a result, this is a vivid illustration of what greater US and European policy presence in the Global South really means.

Preface: in Jordan 'reform is not a strange word'
1. 'Democracy promotion' and moral authority
2. Who's afraid of politics?
3. Supporting, mobilising for, and ignoring Jordanian elections
4. The Jordanian civil society market
5. Break on through to the other side
6. Securing Jordan
7. Imperial coercion, liberal intervention and the rise of populist politics
Sources and bibliography.

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Politics & government [JP], Society & culture: general [JF]