Strangers in plain sight: Conceptions of democracy in EU Neighbourhood Policy and public opinion across North Africa

We draw innovatively on new and existing public opinion survey data carried out across North African countries since 2011 to provide a 'view from below' of the type of democracy that citizens of North African countries want and compare this conception with the type of democracy the European Union (EU) 'offers' its counterparts in the 'Southern Neighbourhood'. This comparison shows there is a mismatch between what citizens want and what the EU is offering. While citizens want a 'thicker', socially just democracy, the EU 'offers' a market democracy that prioritises a limited number of civil and political rights. Social and economic rights are discursively constructed as macroeconomic issues relevant to the stability and consolidation of democracy rather than human rights as integral to democracy as their civil-political counterparts.