Normative Power Europe: Democracy as a Dismissible Norm

The EU is one of the key actors of the democracy promotion industry and the region of South Mediterranean is an important area for the democracy promotion endeavours of the EU. Yet in this region the EU’s ambitious rhetoric about democracy promotion has never translated into concrete action. Particularly two important events, the military coup in Algeria in 1992 and the parliamentary elections in Palestine in 2006, clearly demonstrate that the EU overlooks the violations of democratic principles in her vicinity in order not to risk the stability under the aegis of authoritarian status-quo. Sacrificing the norm of democracy in favour of stability has not just important ramifications for the countries of the South Mediterranean but also for the debates related with the idea of ‘normative power Europe’.