A blog for POLS 209, Dictatorships and Revolutions, at Victoria University of Wellington. A place for students to talk and think about political pathologies all over the world. This is our other blog - see also here
Friday, 27 March 2009
U.S. dubs Belarus "Europe's last dictatorship."
An interesting Time article about the European Union's changing attitude toward what Freedom House names one of the 21 most repressive places in the world.
This article seems to describe a proactive approach by the E.U to “promote democracy and better human right” through the inclusion of Belarus in their “Eastern Partnership Initiative”, with the hope that including Belarus will have an almost top-down effect of imposing democracy. The article continues with the perspective that Lukashenka (President of Belarus) “doesn't intend to make any fundamental changes, just enough to satisfy European politicians." This E.U position of inclusion contrasts their normal stance of strict criteria for state participation which require a state to have a government that is democratic, with rule of law, and acknowledgement of freedoms for the citizenry.
I wonder if this shows a shift in state mentality where interaction with states that are not democratic is becoming more acceptable within the international system? Or if Belarus is simply just of interest to the E.U whose desired consequence of their inclusion of Belarus in the hope that subtle political pressure will move the regime towards democracy. If the later is true, will this challenge the conception of the E.U as a ‘political structure’, can it impose its values on sovereign states? And is it regulated by the other ‘norms’ that govern individual territorial states all over the world?
I do not think interaction with democratic states are becoming more acceptable, but rather that it is in the Eu`s interest to try to push belarus towards democracy and therefore get a new a member who can contribute to the EU with e.g. trade. Belarus has large salt mines, which is an important commodity. It is also my personal opinion, being a citizen of a European country that is not part of the EU (Norway is only part of the EEA), that it has become sort of an obsession for the EU to get as many members as possible. The pressure to join is pretty hard. Why, I`m not sure, maybe just to prove they can do it, or maybe for the economic benefits, or maybe both.
This article seems to describe a proactive approach by the E.U to “promote democracy and better human right” through the inclusion of Belarus in their “Eastern Partnership Initiative”, with the hope that including Belarus will have an almost top-down effect of imposing democracy. The article continues with the perspective that Lukashenka (President of Belarus) “doesn't intend to make any fundamental changes, just enough to satisfy European politicians." This E.U position of inclusion contrasts their normal stance of strict criteria for state participation which require a state to have a government that is democratic, with rule of law, and acknowledgement of freedoms for the citizenry.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this shows a shift in state mentality where interaction with states that are not democratic is becoming more acceptable within the international system? Or if Belarus is simply just of interest to the E.U whose desired consequence of their inclusion of Belarus in the hope that subtle political pressure will move the regime towards democracy. If the later is true, will this challenge the conception of the E.U as a ‘political structure’, can it impose its values on sovereign states? And is it regulated by the other ‘norms’ that govern individual territorial states all over the world?
I do not think interaction with democratic states are becoming more acceptable, but rather that it is in the Eu`s interest to try to push belarus towards democracy and therefore get a new a member who can contribute to the EU with e.g. trade. Belarus has large salt mines, which is an important commodity. It is also my personal opinion, being a citizen of a European country that is not part of the EU (Norway is only part of the EEA), that it has become sort of an obsession for the EU to get as many members as possible. The pressure to join is pretty hard. Why, I`m not sure, maybe just to prove they can do it, or maybe for the economic benefits, or maybe both.
ReplyDelete