Is democracy promotion effective in Moldova? The impact of European institutions on development of civil and political rights in Moldova

The main focus of this study is an analysis of the impact on civil and political rights of democracy promotion strategies applied by the three European organizations in Moldova in the 1990s-early 2000s. Nowadays democracy promotion is at the top of the agenda of policy-makers around the globe. The results of these democracy promotion activities are quite mixed: some of them seem to work in certain cases, others to have no effect whatsoever. There is also a lack of consensus regarding the effectiveness of various democracy promotion strategies in the scholarly literature. This study aims to contribute to the existing literature by expanding the analysis to a new case (Moldova), focusing on one sector (civil and political rights) and comparing the effects of the two types of democracy promotion strategies (incentive-based and socialization-based). The study argues that domestic actors in Moldova tended to respond more to incentive-based democracy promotion strategies than to socialization-based ones, and it also shows through qualitative analysis and process-tracing of the data that the absence of membership conditionality does not necessarily presuppose the failure of incentive-based methods

Import of democracy in the 'grey' post-Soviet space? Evaluating experiences of democracy promotion in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, 1990-2002

This paper asks how and when external factors influence domestic political change. Only a limited number of studies have dealt with this question systematically. This contrasts with rising popularity of the democracy promotion agenda among the policy-makers around the world. The article contends that external democracy promoters influence domestic processes of political change through two causal mechanisms: through constraining of autocratic agents and through empowering of democratic agents. The analysis reveals that external democracy promoters can be effective in influencing domestic change; but this depends on the causal mechanism at play and democratic propensity of the domestic regime

Import of democracy in the 'grey' post-Soviet space? Evaluating experiences of democracy promotion in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, 1990-2002

This article asks how and when external factors influence domestic political change. Only a limited number of studies have dealt with this question systematically. This contrasts with rising popularity of the democracy promotion agenda among the policy-makers around the world. The article contends that external democracy promoters influence domestic processes of political change through two causal mechanisms: through constraining of autocratic agents and through empowering of democratic agents. The analysis reveals that external democracy promoters can be effective in influencing domestic change; but this depends on the causal mechanism at play and democratic propensity of the domestic regime

Import of democracy in the \u27grey\u27 post-Soviet space? Evaluating experiences of democracy promotion in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, 1990-2002

This paper asks how and when external factors influence domestic political change. Only a limited number of studies have dealt with this question systematically. This contrasts with rising popularity of the democracy promotion agenda among the policy-makers around the world. The article contends that external democracy promoters influence domestic processes of political change through two causal mechanisms: through constraining of autocratic agents and through empowering of democratic agents. The analysis reveals that external democracy promoters can be effective in influencing domestic change; but this depends on the causal mechanism at play and democratic propensity of the domestic regime