Promoting Democracy, Reinforcing Authoritarianism US and European Policy in Jordan Cambridge Middle East Studies Series

Appearing against the backdrop of Jordan's remarkable levels of authoritarian stability and accounting for Jordan being one of the highest recipients of US and European 'democracy promotion' funding, Promoting Democracy, Reinforcing Authoritarianism examines what external 'democracy promoters' actually do when they promote democracy. By examining why Jordanian authoritarianism is so stable, not despite but in part because of external attempts at 'democracy promotion', Benjamin Schuetze demonstrates the depth of Orientalist attitudes among 'democracy promoters'. In highlighting the undermining of democratic values as they become circumscribed by the free market and security concerns, Schuetze suggests that although US and European policy in Jordan comes under the cloak of a universal morality which claims the surmounting of authoritarianism as its objective, its effect is not that different to traditional modes of imperial support for authoritarian regimes. As a result, this is a vivid illustration of what greater US and European policy presence in the Global South really means.

Preface: in Jordan 'reform is not a strange word'; 1. 'Democracy promotion' and moral authority; 2. Who's afraid of politics?; 3. Supporting, mobilising for, and ignoring Jordanian elections; 4. The Jordanian civil society market; 5. Break on through to the other side; 6. Securing Jordan; 7. Imperial coercion, liberal intervention and the rise of populist politics; Sources and bibliography.

Benjamin Schuetze is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Freiburg and Research Associate at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute (ABI). His research has been supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and has appeared in journals including Cooperation and Conflict and Security Dialogue, as well as on Al Jazeera and Jadaliyya.