This is a small summary of the findings from my M.A. Thesis, completed in December 2012. I argued that Mongolia’s successful democratization allows the country leverage in deepening its relationship with the United States and Europe. This furthers the US and EU’s democratization agenda, while simultaneously adding weight to Mongolia’s “Third Neighbor Policy”.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Mongolia\u2019s Credentials<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n The expression \u201cnot all that glitters is gold\u201d is perhaps best rephrased for our purposes as \u201cnot all that democratizes will become a democracy\u201d. When Mongolia became an official democracy, no one was sure how a small state with less than 3 million people would manage to produce a real democracy in-between the authoritarian PRC and the uncertain democratization of the newly established Russian Federation.[1]<\/a> However, all available indicators support that it accomplished just that.<\/p>\n Mongolia\u2019s democratic transition was largely based on domestic political will. Real democratization ultimately is an \u201cexercise in national political self-determination.[2]<\/a> True democratization has to be domestically driven otherwise it will lack legitimacy.[3]<\/a> Mongolia was ranked at 6.23 by Democracy Index 2011[4]<\/a>, 6.36 in 2010 [5]<\/a>, 6.6 in 2008 ,[6]<\/a> and 6.6 and 2006 ,[7]<\/a> on a 10 point scale, meaning that it has been consistently ranked as a \u201cflawed democracy\u201d, which while admitting its problems, firmly ranks Mongolia as a democracy above hybrid and authoritarian regimes. Freedom House has ranked Mongolia as \u201cfree\u201d for all available years (2002-2012).[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Although Mongolia is still a developing democracy, it is hard to argue that it is not a functioning one. Signs of increased civil society engagement and contested election results are actually a sign of a thriving democratic system, where the ability to change the status quo is recognized and a number of political parties are competing against each other.<\/p>\n U.S. and E.U. support to Mongolian Democracy <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n High profile visits are an important indication of bilateral ties and entail some level of prestige and significance to relationships between nations. Between the U.S. and Mongolia, several high-profile visits have highlighted the slowly deepening relationship between these two distant countries, often making explicit mention to Mongolia\u2019s democratic status (see Table 1 for a list of the most prominent visits).<\/p>\n Table 1: High-Profile Visits<\/p>\n