Abstract

This essay deals with democracy promotion and protection by established democracies. It first describes how the dynamics and understanding of regime transitions changed from the first to the present fourth wave of democratisation. Subsequently, it defines democracy promotion and protection and describes the different components of it. Finally, it discusses the issue of the strategies of the democracy promoters and protectors and takes a critical look at the issue of evaluating their activities. This essay claims, among other things, that: (1) in general, the goals of the democracy promoters and protectors are focused on out-comes and less on democracy as an open ended process or procedure of government; (2) there is no apolitical way to democratize and, therefore, there is no apolitical strategy to promote and protect democracy; (3) democracy promotion differs significantly from democracy protection, but donors are rarely aware of it; (4) for impact evaluation of democracy promotion and protection to make sense, three different levels of impact should be distinguished: the micro, the meso and the macro.