Regional integration and democratisation

: the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Abstract

This thesis analyses the effects of democracy promotion by the European Union (EU) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on democratic standards and democratic consolidation in their respective member states. Democracy promotion is conceptualised and operationalised into three generalisable mechanisms: sanctions; project funding; and social pressures. The thesis explores how the EU and ASEAN came to commit to democratic values and how each of the mechanisms are used by both organisations to ascertain how both organisations can promote democracy in member states. The thesis then tests the effects of democracy promotion on democratic standards and democratic consolidation using a time-series cross-sectional dataset. The analysis controls for fixed effects of each organisation, leverage the organisation has over the respective state, and lagged effects of democracy promotion. Based on available data, the analysis of democracy promotion on democratic standards tests every member state between the years 1973-2019, while the analysis of democratic consolidation tests democracy promotion between the years 2004-2019. The results suggest that neither the EU's nor ASEAN's democracy promotion is successful; no mechanism has a significant effect on democratic standards and while there are significant effects from sanctions and social pressures on EU democratic consolidation, they are minor and very limited. The conclusions from this thesis suggest that democracy promotion by both organisations has failed because the mechanisms used are weak. In addition, the mechanisms are poorly used because both organisations are not committed to promoting democracy in member states and because democracy promotion is limited by design, especially in ASEAN.

Date of Award	Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	Northern Ireland and North East (NINE) ESRC Doctoral Training Centre
Supervisor	David Phinnemore (Supervisor) & Sohyun Zoe Lee (Supervisor)