Abstract
The book under review provides an insightful conceptual historical analysis of the origins and development of the idea of democracy at the United Nations. Departing from a ‘practice-focused’ perspective (p. 7), Kirsten Haack, from Northumbria University, delves into the conceptual trajectory that helps to understand how the organisation has been able to support and even promote democracy internationally, most especially via peace-building initiatives, despite the fact that democracy assistance is usually regarded as an intrusive practice that undermines state sovereignty. In doing so, the author places a special emphasis on the role played by successive UN Secretaries-General, particularly Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1992–6) and Kofi Annan (1997–2006), in fostering a discourse favourable to democracy promotion within the world body.
As democracy is such a contested concept, the author proposes a ‘democratic continuum’ (p. 16) to situate different understandings of democracy and to serve as a framework to evaluate the UN's own interpretations of democracy against the backdrop of the mainstream Western theories of democracy. Four differing meanings are thus located on a spectrum: democracy as civilisation, as elections, as good governance, and developmental democracy. Each one contains not only visions about what democracy is, but also what democracy should be. As such, the author concludes by raising questions about the extent to which the UN will be able to foster a democracy agenda based on a substantial understanding of democracy. Although the questions raised do not lead to straightforward answers, Haack rightly ascertains that debates over democracy will remain part of the world body agenda in the years to come.
The book is very accessible and presents a wealth of historical information about the United Nations throughout the years under analysis, which should appeal not only to students of international organisations, international relations and political theory, but also to the informed public interested in the history of the organisation. From a more theoretical perspective, there is one aspect of the book that could have been explored at greater length. In fact, although the author departs from a ‘practice-focused perspective', she does not discuss the meaning of this option in depth or how this perspective relates to other developments related to the so-called ‘practice turn’ in the social sciences and international relations, for instance. Hence, addressing the strengths and shortcomings of the proposed approach or how it related to current theoretical debates would have made the book more robust and relevant theoretically.