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.

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.