Democracy Promotion as a Practice of Liberal World Order

Abstract

This chapter asks what the durability and centrality of democracy promotion suggest about the nature of liberal order. Is democracy promotion essentially based on an imperial or perhaps an integrative ordering practice, and how may we explain its longlasting qualities? The chapter is clear in asserting the importance of democracy promotion, arguing that the promotion of liberal democracy plays a central role in liberal order both as a means to the end of a liberal order, but also an end itself. It concedes that democracy promotion has an undeniable expansionist dimension, but it doubts if democracy promotion as a practice of liberal internationalism is imperialist in its logic or consequences, although it clearly involves hierarchical and power-related practices.