Autocrats, alignment, and American values : democracy promotion under great power competition
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation critically examines the geostrategic implications of American democracy promotion, challenging the notion that it is a mere smokescreen for policies aimed at achieving national interest or advantage. It addresses two understudied questions: how the effect of U.S. democracy promotion efforts differs depending on a country's alignment, and why the U.S. government promotes democracy even when other policy objectives might appear more pressing. Drawing on the full range of international relations traditions--realist, liberal, and constructivist--it attempts to provide a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between U.S. democracy promotion and alignment. To that end, it deploys survey methods, archival research, and new data sets related to alignment and pro-democratic demonstrations. The dissertation elucidates several notable discoveries, most prominently that, ceteris paribus, autocracies aligned with Western powers exhibit a propensity to be overthrown by pro-democratic protests at a rate nearly triple that of their counterparts aligned with Russia or China. The text further argues that it is the domestic politics of liberal patrons, like the United States, that lead them to adopt policies that make their autocratic clients more susceptible to pro-democratic mobilizations. This risk, the work concludes, may have implications for how autocracies decide to align themselves in the international system.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2023; ©2023 |
| Publication date | 2023; 2023 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Nelson, Robert Warne |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Schultz, Kenneth A |
| Thesis advisor | Schultz, Kenneth A |
| Thesis advisor | McFaul, Michael, 1963- |
| Thesis advisor | Tomz, Michael |
| Degree committee member | McFaul, Michael, 1963- |
| Degree committee member | Tomz, Michael |
| Associated with | Stanford University, School of Humanities and Sciences |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Political Science |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Robert W. Nelson. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Political Science. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2023. |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/jp517pr3185 |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2023 by Robert Warne Nelson
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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