Bringing Politics Back In

Abstract

Martin Dahinden’s article 'Democracy Promotion at a Local Level' is a welcome and timely contribution to on-going debates about the meaning of democratisation and external support to democracy. Since the end of the Cold War and with the rise of the ‘good governance’ agenda, the dominant approach to democracy promotion within multinational institutions as well as bilateral donor agencies has been a rather normative and technocratic one. The role of the West in accompanying transition from auto...