Regional Integration and Democratic Conditionality: How Democracy Clauses Help Democratic Consolidation and Deepening

How effective are democracy clauses of regional integration organizations (RIOs) in promoting democratization and democratic consolidation among member-states? RIOs are increasingly adopting "democracy only" clauses in their treaties, requiring democracy and political stability as a condition of membership. Stable democracy is a collective good for RIO members; without political stability, uncertainty regarding economic exchange increases, undermining the promise of integration. The presence of powerful countries may be necessary for the RIOs to legalize democratic conditionality.

In this book, the authors argue that once established democracy clauses exert an independent influence in promoting and defending democratic norms and institutions within the member-states by increasing the transparency and credibility of democratic commitment and sanctions for violation. The findings based on the analysis of 40 RIOs around the world and in-depth analysis of the European Union, the Common Market of the South, and the Economic Community of West African States indicate that RIO democracy clauses help prevent democratic backsliding and coups and stimulate democratization and consolidation.

With its global scope, originality, and theoretical rigor, this is the first book to catalogue democracy clauses adopted by RIOs worldwide with a thorough analysis of their effectiveness.

Gaspare M. Genna is an Associate Professor of Political Science at The University of Texas at El Paso. His work is found in International Politics, Journal of European Integration, Comparative European Politics, Latin American Perspectives, Journal of Developing Societies, International Interactions, International Political Economy, and European Union Politics and numerous book chapters. He is an associate editor of Politics & Policy, Senior Research Fellow at the TransResearch Institute, and Associate Research Fellow at the Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies, United Nations University.

Taeko Hiroi is Associate Professor of Political Science at The University of Texas at El Paso. Her research areas are democratic political institutions, democratization, legislative politics, electoral systems, corruption, and comparative and international political economy. She is particularly interested in the issues of governability, quality of democracy, accountability, and representation.