ABSTRACT
Since the end of the Cold War, many states and international organizations (IOs) have devoted increased effort to promoting democracy in the developing world. NGOs have played an important role in this trend, both as advocates of democratization around the world and as agents that help implement the policies of states and IOs in this area. The post-Cold War democracy promotion enterprise has had many critics, including those who point out the inconsistency if not hypocrisy of the states and IOs that engage in democracy promotion (Robinson 1996; Brownlee 2012) and the mixed records of their most prominent efforts (Carothers 1999; Paris 2004). Yet others have noted the successful application of democratic conditionality in the case of the European Union (EU) (Vachudova 2005) and even urged the United States and other Western governments and IOs to embrace democracy promotion more fully in their foreign policies (McFaul 2010).
