Mechanisms of Authoritarian Support: The EU in comparative perspective

This paper examines the causal mechanisms through which the EU as an international actor can reinforce or bolster authoritarian regimes through its foreign policies. The paper is primarily theoretical and conceptual in focus, and highlights the full range of mechanisms through which the EU can provide support (intentionally and otherwise) to authoritarian elites, using a range of illustrative examples from the EU’s policies towards countries in the Mediterranean. The paper will draw heavily from existing theoretical literature concerning democratization and authoritarian rule, but will seek to overcome two core limitations of this literature. First, where scholars have sought to examine the role of international influences on regime politics, they have overwhelmingly assumed that the international dimension serves as a source of democratic politics. Second, where scholars have sought to account for patterns of authoritarian transition and consolidation, they have overwhelmingly focused on national politics and have assumed that domestic-level variables are the best explanatory factors. The paper will argue that existing theoretical work on authoritarianism has ignored the fact that international actors frequently provide the foundations of authoritarian rule in non-democratic regimes. Recent influential work on authoritarian rule (by Jason Brownlee, Jennifer Gandhi, Barabara Geddes and Lucan Way among others) has focused on how authoritarian elites require a certain level of state capacity to remain in power and overcome democratic challenges through co-option or repression. However, these authors often miss the crucial fact that elite capacity in non-democratic regimes is frequently dependent on international actors, and foreign states and international organisations have crucial channels of influences that help reinforce domestic elite capacity. Using the EU’s policies in the Mediterranean as the principal focus, this paper identifies a set of causal mechanisms through which international actors reinforce the capacity of domestic authoritarian elites. The paper distinguishes between two categories of influence: first, the passive form, in which international actors tolerate authoritarian rulers and decline to use the leverage they have to pressurise domestic elites for democratic reform, and second, the active form, in which international actors actively support authoritarian elites through the provision of diplomatic or material benefits (including diplomatic support in international forums, as well as financial and military aid). The paper will conclude by placing the EU in an international comparative context, and highlighting its similarities and differences with other key international actors that have been associated with supporting authoritarian regimes (both international organisations such as the Arab League and the African Union, as well as major powers such as Russia and China).