Illiberal Trends Across European Democracies

Abstract

The specter of post-democratic illiberal trends and neo-authoritaranism (Wodak 2019) as manifestations of ‘illiberal democracy’ (Zakaria 1997) seem to spread throughout the European Union member countries. Different populist movements and parties rise and intersect with new patterns of nationalism, became more and more evident and normalized, especially following the 2015 refugee crises. The phenomenon tackles both post-socialist Central and Eastern European countries and societies, and the ‘old’ democracies. The evidence of such a political and cultural transformation has been growing, not only as appearance on the public scene, but also as establishment of new subjects, and legitimation of new forms of agency defined in terms of populism and nationalism/sovereignism. Further empirical research on different case studies in a comparative perspective, and theoretical reconsideration of the main conceptual framework are necessary at this stage in order to capture perils, forms of resistance and counter-action to the illiberal post-democratic agency. The aim of the panel is to address the problem in both dimensions – empirically and conceptually – trying to answer several important questions: How populism has been manifesting itself regarding the nationalism and sovereignism? What kind of a social ‘fertile ground’ for the populist mobilization and support could be identified within European societies? Which mobilization strategies of the illiberal political agency can be traced today in Europe? What kind of intersectionality between different political and social fields support/resist the tendency? The panel welcomes papers drawing on qualitative and/or quantitative research, and provide a theoretical analysis of the phenomenon.

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