Regional integration and democratisation: the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations

Democracy promotion is conceptualised and operationalised into three generalisable mechanisms: sanctions; project funding; and social pressures. The thesis explores how the EU and ASEAN came to commit to democratic values and how each of the mechanisms are used by both organisations to ascertain how both organisations can promote democracy in member states.

The thesis then tests the effects of democracy promotion on democratic standards and democratic consolidation using a time-series cross-sectional dataset. The analysis controls for fixed effects of each organisation, leverage the organisation has over the respective state, and lagged effects of democracy promotion. Based on available data, the analysis of democracy promotion on democratic standards tests every member state between the years 1973-2019, while the analysis of democratic consolidation tests democracy promotion between the years 2004-2019.