<u>An advocate of economic sanctions would consider them as a sort of punishment </u>imposed on a country, and a succesful manner to change their behaviour.
Economic sanctions are financial and commercial penalties established against a country or group of countries. These can consist on the establishment of trade barriers or tariffs. Another common approach is to set an embargo on a certain country, which consists on the partial or total ban on trade with a particular state.
This depends somewhat on what you classify as "west," but generally speaking, yes, this is true, since it was in Ancient Athens that the first democracy was formed.
