External Influences on Democratisation and Autocratisation: How (Non)Traditional Donor's Competition Shapes Political Regimes

This workshop is innovative as it systematically traces and compares external influences from traditional and non-traditional donors on democracy-related outcomes in low- and middle-income countries through various disciplinary and methodological lenses. This workshop aims to bring together scholars who contribute to furthering methodological debates on democratisation processes and external influences allowing us to advance theory-building on the activities of traditional and non-traditional donors in low- and middle-income countries. It aims to engage in scholarly debates about donor activities on election outcomes, local corruption, gender equality reforms, public attitudes, state capacity, legitimacy, trust, and socio-economic development. It sheds light in a methodologically sound way on the effects of external interferences as well as the intended and unintended consequences of donor competition on different policies fields. Well-grounded in comparative analysis, it allows the workshop participants to empirically assess and theorise the causal mechanisms as of how and why external actors influence political change in recipient countries. The workshop intends to: ● Investigate the influence of traditional and non-traditional donors on development and (democratic, authoritarian) institution-building in low- and middle-income countries; ● Analyse the effects of external influences through, for example, foreign aid on policy outcomes; ● Shed light on donor competition, the donors’ interaction with key political actors and the perceptions of these key political actors of traditional and non-traditional donors; ● Employ innovative methodology and collect new data on the indicated topics, to theorise on development and norm promotion by traditional and non-traditional donors.

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1: What is the nature of the competition of traditional and nontraditional donors in low- and middle-income countries?
2: How do traditional and nontraditional donors interact with key political actors and to what ends?
3: What norms and institutions are promoted, how are they promoted and what is their effects on political regimes?
4: How do key political actors perceive donor engagement, interaction and competition of (non)traditional donors?
5: How can one methodologically well assess and explain the unfolding interactions and effects?

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