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E-book The EU and China in African Authoritarian Regimes : Domestic Politics and Governance Reforms

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Penilaian

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About 25 years after Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the ‘end of history’, ideological and strategic competition between democracies and autocra-cies has firmly reentered international relations. The rise of China has fuelled debates about the economic performance of authoritarian regimes compared with democratic ones (Zhao 2010; Acemoglu and Robinson 2012). Questions about the attractiveness of alternative development models have gained prominence, not least with the economic and financial crises that hit the European Union (EU) but left China largely unaffected. In addition, several observers have identified a pushback across the devel-oping world against EU and USA good governance support, which is at least partly driven by the rise of China and other authoritarian powers (Puddington 2008; Carothers and Brechenmacher 2014).One prominent aspect in these discussions is the question of whether and how China’s engagement in Africa affects the EU’s attempts to sup-port governance reforms in African countries. Some argue that China’s economic cooperation ‘with no strings attached’ undermines the EU and other Western actors’ efforts to support human rights and democratic structures (Halper 2010). Others point out that for the EU and other Western actors security, economic or aid policy interests often trump efforts to support political reforms (Olsen 1998; Brown 2005; Brüne 2007; Jünemann and Knodt 2007). China’s presence would thus have a minor effect, if any. More than 15 years after China began intensifying its engagement with Africa, a comprehensive study on the interaction effects between China’s presence in Africa and the EU’s good governance strate-gies is still lacking. This book makes one of the first theoretically guided and empirically grounded contribution to this debate.Empirical evidence suggests that governments in Africa have responded very differently to the EU’s demands to engage in governance reforms. Autocratically governed countries, such as Angola, Ethiopia and Rwanda, started to reluctantly engage with the EU on governance reforms in the early 2000s. Yet, since the mid-2000s when China’s presence started to reduce Africa’s dependence on the EU, the openness of countries like Angola, Ethiopia and Rwanda to engage with the EU has varied widely. Since the mid-2000s, Rwanda has willingly cooperated with the EU on governance reforms; Ethiopia has remained very reluctant to engage; and Angola has largely ignored EU requests for cooperation. These different reactions cannot easily be explained. All three regimes can be classified as authoritarian, dominant party systems with similarly low levels of political liberalisation. Moreover, all three have seen a reduction in their depen-dence on the EU because of increased access to cooperation with China.Two main questions are therefore at the core of this book. What explains the differences in African governments’ willingness to engage with the EU on governance reforms? To what extent does China’s pres-ence affect African governments’ openness to engage with the EU on governance reforms? The analysis thus focuses on African governments’ strategies towards the EU and China. It analyses how and to what extent African governments engage with the EU on governance reforms, and it investigates whether access to cooperation with China influences African governments’ cooperation strategies.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

327 HAC t

Penerbit

London : Springer Nature., 2018

Deskripsi Fisik

273 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9783319635910

Klasifikasi

327

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

International Relations

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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