Sonja Grimm
Biographic Data
| ID | 288976 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sonja Grimm |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sonja |
| FAMILY NAME | Grimm |
| SIGNATURE | GRIMM S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Konstanz |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1439-0890 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 229 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
The European Union in informal intergovernmental organizations: Mapping an emerging research agenda
Seeking to embed democracy: Tracing the substantial evolution of the European Union’s democracy promotion, 2004–2020
The European Union (EU) is one of the most active promoters of democracy in the world. Stakeholders of democracy promotion frequently criticize the Union for its lack of sensitivity to country-specific contexts. This critique concerns both the concept of democracy and the means through which democratic development ought to be supported from the outside. We examine the validity of this claim by exploring whether the substance of the EU's democracy…
Democracy promotion in times of autocratization: A Conceptual Note
Two cultures in the times of interdisciplinary archaeology. A response to commentators
We would like to begin by thanking the journal and the commentators for their time and attention
Between natural and human sciences: On the role and character of theory in socio-environmental archeology
Prominent voices in archeology have expressed deep skepticism about the role of theory in archeology, while with new, exciting methods at its disposal, archeological science is occasionally perceived as not needing theory at all. This article reflects upon the debate about theory in archeology to arrive at a robust but critical middle-range concept of the role and character of theory in socio-environmental archeology. It is argued that archeology…
Democracy promotion in EU enlargement negotiations: More Interaction, Less Hierarchy
In the integration literature, the relationship of the European Union (EU) as a donor and the (potential) candidates for EU membership as recipients of democracy promotion is described as asymmetrical. The donor is portrayed to have full whereas recipients have moderate or even no leverage over democratic reform what brings a hierarchical notion of active donors versus passive recipients into the analysis. Taking the local turn into consideration…
Environmental determinism and archaeology. Understanding and evaluating determinism in research design
With the emergence of modern techniques of environmental analysis and widespread availability of accessible tools and quantitative data, the question of environmental determinism is once again on the agenda. This paper is theoretical in character, attempting, for the benefit of drawing up research designs, to understand and evaluate the character of environmental determinism. We reach three main conclusions: (1) in a typical pattern of research d…
Building Good (Enough) Governance in Postconflict Societies & Areas of Limited Statehood: The European Union & the Western Balkans
In this essay, we assess how the European Union supports the development of postconflict Western Balkan societies toward stable peace, economic prosperity, and consolidated democracy, moving them along the path to Denmark. Our analysis reveals that the EU has contributed to effective and democratic governance in its southeastern neighborhood. At the same time, its effectiveness as an external good governance–builder varies. Structural postconflic…
Democratization via aid? The European Union’s democracy promotion in the Western Balkans 1994–2010
In this article, we investigate the effect of European Commission democracy assistance on democratization in the countries of the Western Balkans. The analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset of the financial assistance given by the European Commission to the region from 1994 to 2010. Since this dataset is disaggregated into different sectors, it allows for the distinction between direct and indirect approaches to democracy promotion. The reg…
Domestic elites and external actors in post-conflict democratisation: Mapping Interactions and Their Impact
Following the end of the Cold War, post-conflict democratisation has rarely occurred without a significant international involvement. This contribution argues that an explanation of the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation requires more than an examination of external actors, their mission mandates or their capabilities and deficiencies. In addition, there is a need to study domestic elites, their preferences and motivations, as well as thei…
Conflicting Objectives in Democracy Promotion: Do All Good Things Go Together?
Foreword 1. Not all good things go together: conflicting objectives in democracy promotion 2. Democracy promotion, empowerment, and self-determination: conflicting objectives in US and German policies towards Bolivia 3. Financing poverty alleviation vs. promoting democracy? Multi-Donor Budget Support in Zambia 4. Coerced transitions in Timor-Leste and Kosovo: managing competing objectives of institution-building and local empowerment 5. Power-sha…
Resilience theory in archaeological practice – An annotated review
St century democracy promotion in the Americas: Standing up for the polity by Jorgen Heine and Brigitte Weiffen
Conflicts of preferences and domestic constraints: Understanding Reform Failure in Liberal State-Building and Democracy Promotion
This paper challenges the common explanations that failures of external state-building and democracy promotion are the result of a lack of domestic capacity or a lack of domestic willingness against an externally set liberal agenda of state-building and democratisation. Studying political decision-making on a micro-level, we argue that both explanations fail to capture the multi-faceted motivations and interests of domestic actors that go beyond …
Sammelbesprechung: Gawrich, Andrea. 2014. Demokratieförderung von Europarat und Osze. Ein Beitrag zur europäischen Integration. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. 435 S. € 49,99 Heine, Jorge und Brigitte Weiffen…
Stability First, Development Second, Democracy Third: The European Union's Policy towards the Post-Conflict Western Balkans, 1991–2010
This article assesses total EU financial flows towards the Western Balkans between 1991 and 2010. It shows that, in the short term, the majority of support has been allocated to humanitarian assistance and socio-economic development. Although the EU has declared its interest in democracy promotion, democracy assistance ranks only third on the list of its financial expenditures in the Western Balkans. Therefore, although EU financial aid is consis…
Too good to be true? United Nations peacebuilding and the democratization of war-torn states
This article examines the effectiveness of UN peacebuilding missions in democratizing war-torn states, emphasizing those missions that include democracy promotion components in their mandates. Based on a multinominal logistic regression, we reveal that democratization is significantly more likely if a UN peacebuilding mission is deployed. Furthermore, regimes categorized as more liberal at the outset have an increased risk of revealing antidemocr…
Fragile States’: Introducing a political concept
The special issue 'Fragile States: A Political Concept’ investigates the emergence, dissemination and reception of the notion of ‘state fragility’. It analyses the process of conceptualisation, examining how the ‘fragile states’ concept was framed by policy makers to describe reality in accordance with their priorities in the fields of development and security. The contributors to the issue investigate the instrumental use of the ‘state fragility…
The European Union’s ambiguous concept of ‘state fragility’
Although scholars and practitioners alike perceive ‘state fragility’ to be a key challenge for security and development, there are significant variations in the definition of this phenomenon. This article analyses the European Union’s notion of ‘state fragility’. Based on a document analysis covering the years 2001–12 and expert interviews conducted in November 2012, the article reveals that the EU has not (yet) decided on a clear-cut definition …
Development aid confronts politics: The almost revolution, by Thomas Carothers and Diane de Gramont
Development aid confronts politics: the almost revolution, by Thomas Carothers and Diane de Gramont." Democratization, 21(6), pp. 1200–1201
Does National Identity Matter? Political Conditionality and the Crucial Case of Serbia's (Non‐)Co‐operation with the Icty
Seeking to explain the difficult cases of delayed democratic transition in the Western Balkans, recent literature argues that ‘national identity’ significantly limits the effectiveness of external actors’ political conditionality. This argument is tested in this article by investigating Serbia's co‐operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was demanded by the United States and the European Union (E…
The external-domestic interplay in democracy promotion: A case study on public administration reform in Croatia
In this contribution we conceptualize the under-investigated interplay between external and domestic actors in democracy promotion. We first propose a typology of the instruments and means used both by external and domestic actors to influence reform outputs and then trace these instruments’ effects on outcomes, thereby expanding the existing concepts of domestic agency. Although democracy promotion continues to be a rather asymmetric relationshi…
Conflicting Objectives in Democracy Promotion: Do All Good Things Go Together
Kommentar und Replik zum Beitrag „Demokratisierung trotz fehlender Voraussetzungen? Bosnien und Herzegowina, Kosovo und Mazedonien im Vergleich“
Not all good things go together: Conflicting Objectives in Democracy Promotion
Conflicting objectives are often problematized as challenges to the effectiveness of international democracy promotion. However, systematic research about their emergence and effects is still missing. This special issue addresses this research gap and seeks to provide conceptual and empirical answers in the field of conflicting objectives in international democracy promotion. The authors represented in this special issue investigate (post-) confl…
Not all good things go together: Conflicting Objectives in Democracy Promotion
Conflicting objectives are often problematized as challenges to the effectiveness of international democracy promotion. However, systematic research about their emergence and effects is still missing. This special issue addresses this research gap and seeks to provide conceptual and empirical answers in the field of conflicting objectives in international democracy promotion. The authors represented in this special issue investigate (post-) confl…
Environmental determinism and archaeology. Understanding and evaluating determinism in research design
With the emergence of modern techniques of environmental analysis and widespread availability of accessible tools and quantitative data, the question of environmental determinism is once again on the agenda. This paper is theoretical in character, attempting, for the benefit of drawing up research designs, to understand and evaluate the character of environmental determinism. We reach three main conclusions: (1) in a typical pattern of research d…
Too good to be true? United Nations peacebuilding and the democratization of war-torn states
This article examines the effectiveness of UN peacebuilding missions in democratizing war-torn states, emphasizing those missions that include democracy promotion components in their mandates. Based on a multinominal logistic regression, we reveal that democratization is significantly more likely if a UN peacebuilding mission is deployed. Furthermore, regimes categorized as more liberal at the outset have an increased risk of revealing antidemocr…
Fragile States’: Introducing a political concept
The special issue 'Fragile States: A Political Concept’ investigates the emergence, dissemination and reception of the notion of ‘state fragility’. It analyses the process of conceptualisation, examining how the ‘fragile states’ concept was framed by policy makers to describe reality in accordance with their priorities in the fields of development and security. The contributors to the issue investigate the instrumental use of the ‘state fragility…
The external-domestic interplay in democracy promotion: A case study on public administration reform in Croatia
In this contribution we conceptualize the under-investigated interplay between external and domestic actors in democracy promotion. We first propose a typology of the instruments and means used both by external and domestic actors to influence reform outputs and then trace these instruments’ effects on outcomes, thereby expanding the existing concepts of domestic agency. Although democracy promotion continues to be a rather asymmetric relationshi…
External Democratization after War: Success and Failure
In post-war societies external actors promote democracy within a broad framework of state- and nation-building, rule-of-law building, and economic development. But not all democracy promotion efforts succeed in an equal way. A closer look at cases of intervention and democratization since 1945 helps us to account for this variation. Cases of democratization can be differentiated according to their level of post-war socio-economic development, the…
Democratization via aid? The European Union’s democracy promotion in the Western Balkans 1994–2010
In this article, we investigate the effect of European Commission democracy assistance on democratization in the countries of the Western Balkans. The analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset of the financial assistance given by the European Commission to the region from 1994 to 2010. Since this dataset is disaggregated into different sectors, it allows for the distinction between direct and indirect approaches to democracy promotion. The reg…
L'occupation du bassin de Neuwied (Rhénanie centrale, Allemagne) par les Magdaléniens et les groupes à Federmesser (aziliens)
Schaaffhausen’s initial excavation, two large Magdalenian sites •Andernach and Gönnersdorf •as well as six Federmesser sites are known from the Central Rhineland. The latter are Andernach (upper find horizon), Boppard, Niederbieber (the most extensive of these sites), Kettig and Urbar, all of which pre-date the Laacher See eruption, and Bad Breisig, post-dating this event. Furthermore, repeated discoveries of isolated hearths show human activitie…
Democracy promotion in EU enlargement negotiations: More Interaction, Less Hierarchy
In the integration literature, the relationship of the European Union (EU) as a donor and the (potential) candidates for EU membership as recipients of democracy promotion is described as asymmetrical. The donor is portrayed to have full whereas recipients have moderate or even no leverage over democratic reform what brings a hierarchical notion of active donors versus passive recipients into the analysis. Taking the local turn into consideration…
Building Good (Enough) Governance in Postconflict Societies & Areas of Limited Statehood: The European Union & the Western Balkans
In this essay, we assess how the European Union supports the development of postconflict Western Balkan societies toward stable peace, economic prosperity, and consolidated democracy, moving them along the path to Denmark. Our analysis reveals that the EU has contributed to effective and democratic governance in its southeastern neighborhood. At the same time, its effectiveness as an external good governance–builder varies. Structural postconflic…
Stability First, Development Second, Democracy Third: The European Union's Policy towards the Post-Conflict Western Balkans, 1991–2010
This article assesses total EU financial flows towards the Western Balkans between 1991 and 2010. It shows that, in the short term, the majority of support has been allocated to humanitarian assistance and socio-economic development. Although the EU has declared its interest in democracy promotion, democracy assistance ranks only third on the list of its financial expenditures in the Western Balkans. Therefore, although EU financial aid is consis…
Conflicts of preferences and domestic constraints: Understanding Reform Failure in Liberal State-Building and Democracy Promotion
This paper challenges the common explanations that failures of external state-building and democracy promotion are the result of a lack of domestic capacity or a lack of domestic willingness against an externally set liberal agenda of state-building and democratisation. Studying political decision-making on a micro-level, we argue that both explanations fail to capture the multi-faceted motivations and interests of domestic actors that go beyond …
Domestic elites and external actors in post-conflict democratisation: Mapping Interactions and Their Impact
Following the end of the Cold War, post-conflict democratisation has rarely occurred without a significant international involvement. This contribution argues that an explanation of the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation requires more than an examination of external actors, their mission mandates or their capabilities and deficiencies. In addition, there is a need to study domestic elites, their preferences and motivations, as well as thei…
The European Union’s ambiguous concept of ‘state fragility’
Although scholars and practitioners alike perceive ‘state fragility’ to be a key challenge for security and development, there are significant variations in the definition of this phenomenon. This article analyses the European Union’s notion of ‘state fragility’. Based on a document analysis covering the years 2001–12 and expert interviews conducted in November 2012, the article reveals that the EU has not (yet) decided on a clear-cut definition …
Does National Identity Matter? Political Conditionality and the Crucial Case of Serbia's (Non‐)Co‐operation with the Icty
Seeking to explain the difficult cases of delayed democratic transition in the Western Balkans, recent literature argues that ‘national identity’ significantly limits the effectiveness of external actors’ political conditionality. This argument is tested in this article by investigating Serbia's co‐operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was demanded by the United States and the European Union (E…
Seeking to embed democracy: Tracing the substantial evolution of the European Union’s democracy promotion, 2004–2020
The European Union (EU) is one of the most active promoters of democracy in the world. Stakeholders of democracy promotion frequently criticize the Union for its lack of sensitivity to country-specific contexts. This critique concerns both the concept of democracy and the means through which democratic development ought to be supported from the outside. We examine the validity of this claim by exploring whether the substance of the EU's democracy…
Democracy promotion in times of autocratization: A Conceptual Note
Between natural and human sciences: On the role and character of theory in socio-environmental archeology
Prominent voices in archeology have expressed deep skepticism about the role of theory in archeology, while with new, exciting methods at its disposal, archeological science is occasionally perceived as not needing theory at all. This article reflects upon the debate about theory in archeology to arrive at a robust but critical middle-range concept of the role and character of theory in socio-environmental archeology. It is argued that archeology…
L'occupation du bassin de Neuwied (Rhénanie centrale, Allemagne) par les Magdaléniens et les groupes à Federmesser (aziliens)
Schaaffhausen’s initial excavation, two large Magdalenian sites •Andernach and Gönnersdorf •as well as six Federmesser sites are known from the Central Rhineland. The latter are Andernach (upper find horizon), Boppard, Niederbieber (the most extensive of these sites), Kettig and Urbar, all of which pre-date the Laacher See eruption, and Bad Breisig, post-dating this event. Furthermore, repeated discoveries of isolated hearths show human activitie…
External Democratization after War: Success and Failure
In post-war societies external actors promote democracy within a broad framework of state- and nation-building, rule-of-law building, and economic development. But not all democracy promotion efforts succeed in an equal way. A closer look at cases of intervention and democratization since 1945 helps us to account for this variation. Cases of democratization can be differentiated according to their level of post-war socio-economic development, the…
Erzwungene Demokratie
Historisch vergleichen, aber richtig. Irak ist nicht Westdeutschland
Kommentar und Replik zum Beitrag „Demokratisierung trotz fehlender Voraussetzungen? Bosnien und Herzegowina, Kosovo und Mazedonien im Vergleich“
Not all good things go together: Conflicting Objectives in Democracy Promotion
Conflicting objectives are often problematized as challenges to the effectiveness of international democracy promotion. However, systematic research about their emergence and effects is still missing. This special issue addresses this research gap and seeks to provide conceptual and empirical answers in the field of conflicting objectives in international democracy promotion. The authors represented in this special issue investigate (post-) confl…
Conflicting Objectives in Democracy Promotion: Do All Good Things Go Together
Too good to be true? United Nations peacebuilding and the democratization of war-torn states
This article examines the effectiveness of UN peacebuilding missions in democratizing war-torn states, emphasizing those missions that include democracy promotion components in their mandates. Based on a multinominal logistic regression, we reveal that democratization is significantly more likely if a UN peacebuilding mission is deployed. Furthermore, regimes categorized as more liberal at the outset have an increased risk of revealing antidemocr…
Fragile States’: Introducing a political concept
The special issue 'Fragile States: A Political Concept’ investigates the emergence, dissemination and reception of the notion of ‘state fragility’. It analyses the process of conceptualisation, examining how the ‘fragile states’ concept was framed by policy makers to describe reality in accordance with their priorities in the fields of development and security. The contributors to the issue investigate the instrumental use of the ‘state fragility…
The European Union’s ambiguous concept of ‘state fragility’
Although scholars and practitioners alike perceive ‘state fragility’ to be a key challenge for security and development, there are significant variations in the definition of this phenomenon. This article analyses the European Union’s notion of ‘state fragility’. Based on a document analysis covering the years 2001–12 and expert interviews conducted in November 2012, the article reveals that the EU has not (yet) decided on a clear-cut definition …
Development aid confronts politics: The almost revolution, by Thomas Carothers and Diane de Gramont
Development aid confronts politics: the almost revolution, by Thomas Carothers and Diane de Gramont." Democratization, 21(6), pp. 1200–1201
Does National Identity Matter? Political Conditionality and the Crucial Case of Serbia's (Non‐)Co‐operation with the Icty
Seeking to explain the difficult cases of delayed democratic transition in the Western Balkans, recent literature argues that ‘national identity’ significantly limits the effectiveness of external actors’ political conditionality. This argument is tested in this article by investigating Serbia's co‐operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was demanded by the United States and the European Union (E…
The external-domestic interplay in democracy promotion: A case study on public administration reform in Croatia
In this contribution we conceptualize the under-investigated interplay between external and domestic actors in democracy promotion. We first propose a typology of the instruments and means used both by external and domestic actors to influence reform outputs and then trace these instruments’ effects on outcomes, thereby expanding the existing concepts of domestic agency. Although democracy promotion continues to be a rather asymmetric relationshi…
Sammelbesprechung: Gawrich, Andrea. 2014. Demokratieförderung von Europarat und Osze. Ein Beitrag zur europäischen Integration. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. 435 S. € 49,99 Heine, Jorge und Brigitte Weiffen…
Stability First, Development Second, Democracy Third: The European Union's Policy towards the Post-Conflict Western Balkans, 1991–2010
This article assesses total EU financial flows towards the Western Balkans between 1991 and 2010. It shows that, in the short term, the majority of support has been allocated to humanitarian assistance and socio-economic development. Although the EU has declared its interest in democracy promotion, democracy assistance ranks only third on the list of its financial expenditures in the Western Balkans. Therefore, although EU financial aid is consis…
St century democracy promotion in the Americas: Standing up for the polity by Jorgen Heine and Brigitte Weiffen
Conflicts of preferences and domestic constraints: Understanding Reform Failure in Liberal State-Building and Democracy Promotion
This paper challenges the common explanations that failures of external state-building and democracy promotion are the result of a lack of domestic capacity or a lack of domestic willingness against an externally set liberal agenda of state-building and democratisation. Studying political decision-making on a micro-level, we argue that both explanations fail to capture the multi-faceted motivations and interests of domestic actors that go beyond …
Conflicting Objectives in Democracy Promotion: Do All Good Things Go Together?
Foreword 1. Not all good things go together: conflicting objectives in democracy promotion 2. Democracy promotion, empowerment, and self-determination: conflicting objectives in US and German policies towards Bolivia 3. Financing poverty alleviation vs. promoting democracy? Multi-Donor Budget Support in Zambia 4. Coerced transitions in Timor-Leste and Kosovo: managing competing objectives of institution-building and local empowerment 5. Power-sha…
Resilience theory in archaeological practice – An annotated review
Building Good (Enough) Governance in Postconflict Societies & Areas of Limited Statehood: The European Union & the Western Balkans
In this essay, we assess how the European Union supports the development of postconflict Western Balkan societies toward stable peace, economic prosperity, and consolidated democracy, moving them along the path to Denmark. Our analysis reveals that the EU has contributed to effective and democratic governance in its southeastern neighborhood. At the same time, its effectiveness as an external good governance–builder varies. Structural postconflic…
Democratization via aid? The European Union’s democracy promotion in the Western Balkans 1994–2010
In this article, we investigate the effect of European Commission democracy assistance on democratization in the countries of the Western Balkans. The analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset of the financial assistance given by the European Commission to the region from 1994 to 2010. Since this dataset is disaggregated into different sectors, it allows for the distinction between direct and indirect approaches to democracy promotion. The reg…
Domestic elites and external actors in post-conflict democratisation: Mapping Interactions and Their Impact
Following the end of the Cold War, post-conflict democratisation has rarely occurred without a significant international involvement. This contribution argues that an explanation of the outcomes of post-conflict democratisation requires more than an examination of external actors, their mission mandates or their capabilities and deficiencies. In addition, there is a need to study domestic elites, their preferences and motivations, as well as thei…
Two cultures in the times of interdisciplinary archaeology. A response to commentators
We would like to begin by thanking the journal and the commentators for their time and attention
Between natural and human sciences: On the role and character of theory in socio-environmental archeology
Prominent voices in archeology have expressed deep skepticism about the role of theory in archeology, while with new, exciting methods at its disposal, archeological science is occasionally perceived as not needing theory at all. This article reflects upon the debate about theory in archeology to arrive at a robust but critical middle-range concept of the role and character of theory in socio-environmental archeology. It is argued that archeology…
Democracy promotion in EU enlargement negotiations: More Interaction, Less Hierarchy
In the integration literature, the relationship of the European Union (EU) as a donor and the (potential) candidates for EU membership as recipients of democracy promotion is described as asymmetrical. The donor is portrayed to have full whereas recipients have moderate or even no leverage over democratic reform what brings a hierarchical notion of active donors versus passive recipients into the analysis. Taking the local turn into consideration…
Political science (21 works) · Law (16 works) · Politics (16 works) · Democracy (15 works) · Democratization (14 works) · Law (14 works) · Political economy (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Economics (12 works) · Democracy promotion (11 works)