Non-compliance and instrumental variation in EU democracy promotion

Abstract: This article analyses the EU's response pattern to events of democratic wrongdoing in third countries. Why does the EU in some cases take a harsh position by using coercive measures and confines itself in other cases to soft instruments such as rhetorical engagement? It sheds light on this issue by employing an original dataset of non-compliance events in the ex-Soviet republics between 1993 and 2005. While existing scholarship lacks precision and is often biased towards making self-regarding motives within the foreign policy machinery the main subject of the discussion, this article widens the focus to resource, institutional and normative explanations