The Practice and Politics of Democratic Expertise

• In Event: 575 - Regular Session. Voluntary Organization: Expertise and its Discontents

Abstract

This research examines the work of NGOs and government-affiliated agencies that develop and support international democratization projects. Based on a series of interviews with professionals working in “democracy assistance” organizations, this study investigates the ways expert knowledge about democracy translates into the various democratization projects funded by such organizations. Drawing on recent literature in the sociology of knowledge, as well as a broader “practice turn” in international studies, this article identifies the cultivation of “democratic expertise” as an important institutional practice that allows democracy assistance organizations to position themselves within the broader field of international development aid. According to the findings of this research, the contemporary practice of democracy assistance embraces the insoluble nature of competing democratic theories, diverse democratic traditions and specific democratic practices to open new spaces for expert intervention and, subsequently, institution building.

Author

• Michael Christensen, York University