Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Constructing the EU as a Policy Entrepreneur: The Roots of European Identity.- Chapter 3: The EU’s Neighbourhood Policy before the Arab Uprisings: Rhetoric vs. Reality.- Chapter 4: From Talking Democracy to Promoting Autocracy: Analysing the EU's Neighbourhood Policy After the Arab Uprisings.- Chapter 5: EU Delivery and Practice: Democracy Assistance, Aid and Trade Before and After the Uprisings.- Chapter 6. What do ‘The People’ Want? Form and Substance in Democracy and social justice.- Chapter 7: Priorities for Inclusive Growth: Increasing Employment, Decreasing Inequality and Fighting Corruption.- Chapter 8: Gender Equality in Theory and Practice.- Chapter 9: In the In the Eye of the Beholder: Perceptions of the EU Through Survey Data.- Chapter 10: Conclusions: Learning from Listening? Why the EU Failed to Learn from the Arab Uprisings and Why that Matters.

This book explains why the EU is not a ‘normative actor’ in the Southern Mediterranean, and how and why EU democracy promotion fails. Drawing on a combination of discourse analysis of EU policy documents and evidence from opinion polls showing ‘what the people want’, the book shows EU policy fails because the EU promotes a conception of democracy which people do not share. Likewise, the EU’s strategies for economic development are misconceived because they do not reflect the people’s preferences for greater social justice and reducing inequalities. This double failure highlights a paradox of EU democracy promotion: while nominally emancipatory, it de facto undermines the very transitions to democracy and inclusive development it aims to pursue.

Andrea Teti is Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, UK, and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Security and Governance.

Pamela Abbott is Director of the Centre for Global Development and a professor in the School of Education at the University of Aberdeen, UK.

Valeria Talbot is Senior Research Fellow and Co-Head of the MENA Centre at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, Milan, Italy.

Paolo Maggiolini is Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of Milan, Italy.

“This book presents a sobering analysis of the EU's failures as a normative power in the Southern Mediterranean. Creatively combining discursive and quantitative data, the chapters superbly reveal the continuing EU-centrism in many of the EU's policies, and serve as an unsettling reminder of their perverse effects on the politics and economies of the affected states.” (Professor Thomas Diez, University of Tübingen, Germany)

“This work blends critical discourse analysis of EU foreign policy documents with surveys in the Arab world, interpreted spot-on within a deep contextual knowledge of both EU foreign policy and the Arab world since the start of the uprisings. Being unique in its approach, it presents a solid and sharp analysis of the most problematic shortcomings of European foreign policy in its neighborhood and is a must-read for anyone – scholars and practitioners alike – interested in EU policies after the Arab uprisings.” (Daniela Huber, Head of the Mediterranean and Middle East Programme, Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), Rome, Italy)

“The authors offer an original way of looking at the European Foreign Policy towards the Mediterranean basin and its shortcomings in dealing with the transformations produced by the Arab uprisings, combining a solid historical perspective with an impressive quantitative analysis of data collected in the field. This book is a clear, well-documented and sharp analysis of the uncertain situation the EU is facing and of the difficulties in remodeling and re-adjusting its foreign policy in the region.” (Professor Riccardo Redaelli, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy)

“The authors carry out a thorough critical discourse analysis of core EU policy in its southern neighbourhood texts and match this analysis with quantitative public opinion survey data from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. In doing so they show how the EU’s underlying logic in the way it conceptualizes its southern neighbourhood remains embedded in a long-failing framework – in spite of the Arab uprisings.” (Professor Michelle Pace, Roskilde University, Denmark)

Provides crucial insights into how the EU is perceived to be contributing towards citizens’ fears and goals Presents an innovative pairing of EU policy and practice via Critical Discourse Analysis Uses quantitative data from the Arab Transformations Project public opinion survey (2014)

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