Research Papers

The paper seeks to analyze the democracy promotion policy of the European Union (EU) towards the South Caucasian states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. With these countries being covered by the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and the Eastern Partnership (EP) imitative both of which have aimed at fostering democracy, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia do not fare well as far as their democratic performance is concerned. Thus, the paper posits an assumption that an ardent democracy promoter, like the EU, would need to resort to a proportional policy whereby a) its strategy and tactics would be reflexive of the status of democracy in the target countries and b) it would aim at filling in the existing gaps by helping these countries move towards democratic consolidation. The Union's strategy is investigated through scrutiny of its rhetoric. Its tactics is analyzed by delving into the practice on the ground; the latter is delineated into procedural and substantive strata. Both qualitative (discourse) and quantitative (funding) analysis are used to scrutinize the nature of the Union's policy and detect the differences in its policy towards Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. By drawing on the attempts made by the Union to foster democratic transformation in the South Caucasus the paper argues that the EU has acted as a disproportional democracy promoter in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Instead, its policy has flowed proportionally to the readiness of these countries to embark on reforms, rather than addressed the existing chasms. Thus, the policy has not rendered the desired outcomes.