Milja Kurki is a lecturer at Aberystwyth University and the Principal Investigator of a European Research Council-funded project, Political Economies of Democratisation (2008-2012).

• 1. Introduction: Democracy and contestation: analysing the conceptual foundations of democracy promotion in the context of multiple crises PART I Democracy as a contested concept: surveying politico-economic visions of democracy 2. The contested liberal democratic model: and its multiple variants 3. Challenges to liberal democracy: socialist critics and social democracy 4. Reviving the direct democratic tradition: participatory democracy and radical democracy 5. The poverty of state-based democracy: cosmopolitan models of democracy 6. Orientations towards the empirical study of conceptual orders in democracy promotion PART II Politico-economic models of democracy in democracy promotion practice 7. Liberal Democracy and its multiple meanings in US democracy promotion (co-authored with Jeff Bridoux) 8. EU: a fuzzy liberal democracy promoter 9. Democracy promotion by non-state actors: alternative models in action?.Chapter 10. International Financial Institutions and democracy promotion Part III Conclusions and policy provocations Chapter 11. Democracy promotion, implicit liberalism and the liberal world order 12. Policy provocations – from a critical perspective Conclusion

'This book provides a useful contribution to debates about democracy promotion by looking at what Kurki deems the 'hidden' assumptions about political change that inform discussions of the topic.' - G. John Ikenberry