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Paper abstract:

Why do some authoritarian regimes reject while others engage in democracy promotion (DP) by international actors? My dissertation explains the observed variation in authoritarian reactions to external DP. I argue that the domestic legitimacy concerns of the authoritarian regime determine its reaction to international actors' democracy promotion policies (DPP). Specifically, the more concerned the authoritarian regime is about its legitimacy, the more likely it will reject the DPP directly or indirectly threatening the regime’s existence while still engaging in the areas of DP that would boost its legitimacy and stability. On the contrary, if the regime is confident of its legitimacy, it will permit a broad range of international democracy promoters to operate in the country while limiting their activities only in some areas to a certain degree. Using Azerbaijan as a case study, with a longitudinal analysis encompassing 1993-2022 I show factors that contributed to the divergent responses of two authoritarian regimes in Azerbaijan to the DP by international actors. In doing so, I examine the behavior of the government of Haydar Aliyev (1993-2003) and that of his son Ilham Aliyev (2003-2022) in dealing with Western democracy promoters with a particular focus on the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.). The dissertation contributes to the literature on the DP by international actors in authoritarian regimes and on authoritarian legitimacy and stability showing that the domestic legitimacy concern of the authoritarian regime is the key driver of how it will respond to the external DP.