Thursday, June 27, 2013
C2.17 (Oudemanhuispoort)
The proposed paper seeks to explore the potential for diffusing democratic norms through transgovernmental networks that implement functional cooperation between administrations from established democracies in Europe and liberalized autocracies in the Arab world. This interaction is said to result in democratic socialization of involved state officials, thus creating possible domestic stakeholders in democracy within a predominantly non-democratic polity. The project adopts an institutionalist perspective: Transgovernmental networks are not viewed as outside entities forcing their own rules and preferences upon less democratic states, but as a setting for professional exchange. In this study I seek to propose ways of how to distinguish between two dominant socialization mechanisms, cognitive learning and affective internalization, with the latter being more likely to become ultimately realized in terms of pro-democratic behaviour. The study compares the democratic quality and the democratizing effect in 10 country-network cases by taking the EU long-term Twinning projects in Morocco and Jordan on fight against terrorism, prison reforms, customs duty, competition, health control, and the environment. The comparison of the socialization effect of these networks in Morocco and Jordan allows to explore the extent to which and the way in which different historical administrative heritage and the existence of a strong alternative external actor – the USA in Jordan – affect the potential of EU networks to familiarize state officials with democratic practices of decision-making. The project combines statistical analyses with intense case studies. Quasi-experimental static group comparison based on data produced by standardized questionnaires distributed among administrative staff (200 Jordanian, 150 Moroccan state officials), to measure their attitudes toward democratic governance.
