Democratic Governance and Non-state Actors

This book investigates whether international standards of good governance are applied to sub-state actors as well as to states. By examining the international response to self-determination claims, this project demonstrates that the international community does indeed hold sub-state groups accountable to such standards. Claimant groups that have internalized human rights and democratic norms are more likely to receive international support in the form of empowerment (promoting some form of self-governance). To illustrate the causal forces at work, the book presents three qualitative case studies--Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, and the Western Sahara--to demonstrate that predictable changes in the international response occur as international perception of each claimant group's democratic record varies over time.

Anne-Marie Garden is an Associate Research Scholar with the Liechtenstein Institute on self-Determination at Princeton University. She has published and conducted research on self-determination, human rights, and causes of conflict, including articles in International Peacekeeping and The Review of International Studies. She is also co editor of The Globalization of Human Rights (with Jean-Marc Coicaud and Michael W. Doyle, 2003) and Executive Editor of Encyclopedia Princetoniensis: The Princeton Encyclopedia of self Determination.