How The US Promotes Democracy Worldwide-An Analysis Of Practices Of The Bureau Of Democracy,Human Rights And Labor

The concept of democracy and democracy promotion are controversial topics. The origins of democracy can date back to ancient Greek city-states and the Roman Empire. Many scholars have put forward various definitions of democracy. Although the concept of democracy has gone through some changes, the core content remains the same --that is people having their rights to decide political regimes for themselves. Despite the controversies over democracy and democracy promotion, the practices of democracy promotion worldwide has continued since the first wave of democratization.The international community as a whole, with the US playing a key role, has driven the promulgation of democracy around the globe. In examining the entire practice of democracy promotion, the U.S. serves as a good example since it seems to be more dedicated to and put more effort in this cause than any other country. Considering the feasibility of analyzing the huge amount of actors and programs in this cause, this thesis will only focus on analyzing the practices of a specific bureau, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), which plays a leading role in U.S. democracy promotion around the globe. The analysis of DRL practices may reveal the big picture of how the U.S. promotes democracy worldwide.The DRL was established in 1993 during the Clinton Administration. After the end of the Cold War, President Clinton needed a new foreign policy to replace the old policy of "containment". Thus, the Clinton Doctrine, which features "democratic enlargement" came into being, and the DRL was formed to support such foreign policy. DRL’s main responsibility was the supervision of US grants aimed at promoting democracy all around the globe. It also generates annual reports on US practices of democracy promotion in different countries and regions.The analysis of DRL’s programs and grants in different countries and areas, including the number of these programs, the amount of those grants, the themes of these grants, and the eligible applicants of those grants, reveal that the strategy is changing from direct methods to indirect methods of democracy promotion. In the meantime, the analysis may reveal the fact that US democracy promotion is not aligned with the need of democracy promotion since there are many democracy promotion programs in democratic countries while some non-democratic countries receive limited assistance. Therefore, the goals of US democracy promotion are more than just spreading democracy around the globe. There exist other factors such as economics, security and strategic interests that are motives for the US to promote democracy.