Western Conceptions of Democracy – Exploring the Foundations of American and European Approaches to Democracy Promotion

Do Western liberal democracies share a common understanding of democracy? If so, then why does there exist a so-called “transatlantic divide over democracy promotion”? While the United States apply a mainly unilateral, bottom-up strategy, the European Union pursues a much more flexible approach that is often described as multilateral and elite-driven. While agreement exists as to whether democracy promotion is a legitimate goal of national foreign policy, disagreement persists as to what kinds of strategies foster liberal democracy most effectively. I contend that for too long this question has been the preserve of realist theorists, who assert that transatlantic similarities and differences in foreign-policy orientations result from America’s military dominance and international posture as opposed to European economic strength but relative military weakness. Instead, I suggest that differences between the US and Europe in terms of post-conflict democracy promotion derive less from relative power positions rather than from different historical backgrounds and experiences with political modernization, and, hence, historically embedded conceptions of democracy. These conceptions encompass a set of deep-seated convictions and beliefs about the nature of democracy and how democracies emerge. It is therefore reasonable to assume that democracy promoters choose instruments that advance their vision of an ideal transition and that are congruent with their respective understandings of democracy. These different conceptions appear very early in Western history in the writings of the founding fathers, but also in the works of Thomas Hobbes, Montesquieu, John Stuart Mill and John Locke. This paper will shed new light on the nature of the transatlantic divide and Western conceptions of democracy by the analysis of media debates on post-conflict state-building in four Western democracies – France, UK, Germany and the US. Furthermore, the study aims at a more sophisticated understanding of the core values of Americans and Europeans not by employing public-opinion research, but by examining media coverage on wars and military interventions over time without provoking bias. My findings reveal different understandings with regard to the key elements of democracy and state-society relations among Western democracies.