Still a good governance exporter? Questioning EU's transformative power in the age of democratic decline

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05781-6_13

This short concluding chapter offers an overview of the extent to which the EU promotes good governance among its members, candidates, immediate neighbours, and aid-receiving developing countries in the age of democracy crisis. Building on the findings of the empirical chapters of the book, this chapter presents a comprehensive summary of the EU’s good governance promotion policies with regard to the different country clusters and discusses its capacity vis-à-vis alternative governance exporters such as Russia and China. First, the chapter examines whether conditionality still promotes democracy and good governance in the member states and candidates and then assesses the impact of various factors such as internal disunity in the EU and illiberal contesters to the EU’s transformative power beyond enlargement. Finally, the chapter discusses the implications of the findings of the book on the future of good governance promotion efforts within and beyond the EU and outlines areas for further research.