Promoting democracy abroad: policy and performance (1st edition.)

Promoting democracy has grown from a small, little- known activity to a high-profile endeavor.

It now involves academia, think tanks, and the popular media.

The number of countries and organizations, inter-governmental, non-governmental, as well as governmental involved in supporting the spread of democracy is now legion.

Countries touched by these efforts include a majority of all the world's states and some independent territories that are not yet fully sovereign.

The definitional boundaries between promoting democracy and international advocacy and defense of human rights and 'good governance' are not precise.

Similarly, the concept of promoting democracy itself is not uniformly accepted.

It has become a slogan that attracts both fervent support and grave condemnation.

For Burnell, promoting democracy refers to a range of non-coercive attempts to spread democracy abroad for whatever reason.