Reconfiguring Canadian Democracy Promotion

Convergence with the US approach?The promotion of democracy has been a key element of Canadian foreign policy and development assistance for over two decades. Although its contributions are still modest in comparison to those of other development agencies, the Canadian International Development Agency's budget for democracy assistance has grown steadily over the years, doubling over io years from $223 million in 1996 to $477.9 million in 2006.1 Along with freedom, human rights, and the rule of law, democracy is one of four core values guiding the foreign policy of the current Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and supporting democracy (or, in the bureaucratese of the agency, helping to strengthen governance institutions and practices) remains a CIDA priority. At the regional level, moreover, democracy, security, and prosperity comprise the three pillars of the government's Americas strategy.At first glance, there is little objectionable about a foreign policy that emphasizes the importance of supporting democratic development - even if some might argue that the Harper government's own behaviour at home renders it an unlikely candidate for giving lessons on democracy abroad. There are indications, however, that Canada is subordinating its overall approach to democracy promotion to foreign policy obj ectives that in fact have very little to do with democracy. This includes two interrelated tendencies: the use of democracy promotion as a rationale to advance unrelated security objectives and commercial interests, and the attempt to exert greater control over the democracy assistance community of practice, a term that will be addressed below.As governments across the hemisphere contest the neoliberal development model, Canadian democracy promotion is increasingly being used as a political device to promote free markets and to criticize governments that have strayed from the Washington consensus. In the new discourse, democracy is conflated with the market and security is seen as the precondition of its realization. The subordination of democracy promotion to foreign policy objectives with questionable linkages to democracy involves tendencies that predate the current government, including the increasing subordination of CIDA to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Under Harper, however, the independence of Canada's main arm's-length democracy agency, Rights and Democracy, has come under attack, while many progressive nongovernmental organizations involved in supporting democracy have seen their funding cut. Such developments threaten what remains of Canada's rights -based approach to democratic development with its expansive view of citizenship and focus on empowering grassroots organizations. For those who believe that Canada still has a positive role to play on the international stage, these are worrying times.Lurking in the background of these developments is the failure of a similar approach to democracy promotion by the United States. Although US democracy programs often provide support to actors from across the political spectrum, a defining characteristic of the US approach has been a tendency to use democracy promotion as a justification to criticize ideological opponents - whatever their democratic credentials - and to use democracy assistance as a political tool to advance economic interests. As Canadian parliamentarians have themselves recognized, Canada's growing involvement in democracy promotion comes at a time when the US approach has come under fire.The purpose of this article is thus twofold: to bring to the fore legitimate concerns surrounding the US approach and the backlash it has encountered, and to situate the evolution of Canadian democracy promotion within ideological and institutional changes that portend a closer alignment with this approach. I look specifically at the evolution of the democracy promotion communities of practice and their relation to larger foreign policy objectives in both countries, using the Americas as a regional backdrop to explore these issues in greater detail. …

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