ABSTRACT

How has the post-2015 democratic rollback in Poland impacted its support for the democratization of Ukraine and Belarus? Conventional wisdom is that countries undergoing autocratization would abandon democracy promotion. In contrast, we provide evidence that even as democracy was undermined at home, Poland continued to provide democracy support abroad, albeit less enthusiastically. We further document that it was not the normative commitment of Polish elites to democracy but the instrumental embeddedness of democracy promotion in Polish foreign and security policies that ensured its survival. Lastly, we find that Poland’s support for democracy abroad now is closer to the new conservative values promoted at home, implemented mostly through state-run or state-controlled programs and less focused on supporting civil and political society abroad. Our paper contributes to the literature on regime promotion by analyzing and theorizing the overlooked question of how foreign policy, including democracy promotion, shifts for countries undergo autocratization.

摘要

2015 年后波兰的民主倒退如何影响其对乌克兰和白俄罗斯民主化的支持？传统观点认为，经历专制化的国家会放弃促进民主。相比之下，我们提供的证据表明，即使民主在国内遭到破坏，波兰仍继续在国外提供民主支持，尽管热情不高。我们进一步证明，确保其生存的不是波兰精英对民主的规范承诺，而是波兰外交和安全政策中促进民主的工具性嵌入。最后，我们发现波兰现在在国外对民主的支持更接近于国内提倡的新保守价值观，主要通过国营或国家控制的项目实施，较少关注支持国外的公民和政治社会。