Although EU democracy assistance (DA) policy has been criticized both before and after the Arab Uprisings for …'. With this objective, this article examines the conceptual structure of ‘democracy' in key policy documents. It finds that … the ideas of democracy and its promotion remain virtually unchanged after the uprisings. Specifically, the analysis shows …

subjects may exit. In a simple model, both kinds of competition are substitutes. Internal competition (democracy) benefits … democracy, and rulers are less eager to oppose it, when external competition is high. In a panel of countries, there are fewer … changes towards democracy when states have low GDP relative to their neighbours. -- political competition ; dictatorship …