Democratic Imperialism

Once you accept that democracy and human rights are universally desirable and that they should be implemented and respected everywhere,1 the question remains how you can promote this universal respect. It is not because you accept universality that everyone accepts it. How can you turn the norm into a fact? How do you universalise democracy and human rights? And what are the actions you can take and the instruments you can use? This book will not be a success if it cannot help and encourage those people who are willing and able to work for the universal application of democracy and human rights. Hence, this is not philosophy or theoretical thinking. The focus is on practical political matters such as diplomacy, legislation, intervention, sanctions etc. But it is not political science either because it does not try to analyse, in a scientific way, which actions of foreign policy are useful and efficient. The ambition is rather limited. I merely wish to list the actions that are possible and desirable in a general sense. It is then up to politics and political science to determine which particular action can be used in an efficient way in a particular case.