With a little help from my friends? Regional organizations and the consolidation of democracy

Much theoretical and empirical work has been devoted to the study of democratic consolidation. Most of this literature, however, ignores international influences on the consolidation process. This lack investigation is especially troublesome given assertions by policymakers that outside assistance, including membership in international organizations, can support the consolidation process, I develop and test a theory of how membership in regional organizations,can influence the process of democratic consolidation. I contend that regional IOs are not an outside entity forcing their preferences upon new democratic regimes, but that regional IOs are used by young democratic regimes to consolidate reforms through multiple causal mechanisms. I discuss both the demand for regional organizations as well as supply-side factors. I test the argument-using event history analysis to analyze a sample of democracies from 1950 to 1992. I find that the joining of certain regional organizations is associated with increased longevity for new democracies.