Making Eastern Neighborhood Resilient through Democracy-Assistance Efforts of New EU Member States: Experimental Evidence from Poland

The purpose of the paper is to present the results of the impact evaluation method used to assess the democracy assistance efforts of the young democracies in the EU. The new members of the EU, especially the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, are very active in democracy promotion in the Eastern Partnership countries, however little is known about the effectiveness of these efforts.

The paper demonstrates the findings from studying the impact of Polish youth empowerment project directed toward students from Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and Russia. The project was evaluated using randomized controlled trails methodology, which required the comparison among the participants, whose access to the project was randomized, and non-participants. The survey conducted among 300 students present and interesting findings regarding the impact of the project as well as opinions and perceptions of young people from the Eastern Partnership countries regarding democracy, the role of a citizen in the society and politics, and the European Union.

The RCTs as an impact evaluation method has been widely used in developmental aid and only recently in democracy assistance. Therefore, the paper also contributes to exploring the usefulness of this impact evaluation method. It is believed that through applying the proper method the researchers and practitioners are more accurate in answering the questions regarding the effectiveness of democracy-assistance projects and their possible impact on diffusing the ideas of civil society and democracy through socially and politically active young people in the EU Eastern Neighborhood.