“Soft backsliding” or “ordinary” politics? Rule of law decline in the ECE region

Abstract

Backsliding often refers to a transnational evolution leading to the disintegration of democracy, a slow erosion of values leading to a change in the political regimes (Tomini 2017; Bogaards 2018). The ‘clandestine’ character of backsliding involves apparently-benign initiatives based on legal means, manipulation of good standards, and executive action that progressively alter the liberal-constitutional pillars of democracy (Scheppelle 2013; Bermeo 2016; Levitsky and Ziblatt 2018). Such trends had been amply documented in countries such as Hungary, and Poland, leading to form sof democratic deconsolidation, as illustrated in the Venezuelan case. Over the last decades, numerous examples of constitutional capture, court-packing, political purges and intimidation of judges, media censorship, corruption had been amply documented in Europe and worldwide (Scheppele 2015; Sadurski 2019; Halmai 2018; Krekó and Enyedi 2018). Aside from the usual suspects – Hungary and Poland – some new countries sporadically came into the spotlight due to similar practices (Bulgaria, Slovakia), others appear ‘seasonally’ on the European agenda (Romania), while some tend to fly closely under the EU radar (Czech Republic or Slovenia). This panel focuses on countries in the ECE region known for the long-term systemic flaws in the overall functioning of the judicial system, corruption, and/or attacks to the EU values. It aims to contrast them with the ideal-typical examples of backsliding (i.e. Poland or Hungary). Are such political pathologies signalling the presence of a delayed process of democratic decline (such countries are simply lagging in terms of a broader wave of democratic decline in the region? Or, conversely, are these pathologies simply expressing ‘ordinary politics in the region’ (unsettled processes of democratisation in the new member states)?

Title	Details
From the Czech Untouchables to a democratic backsliding	View Paper Details
Attempts to politicise the judiciary in Poland, or how to kill two birds with one stone	View Paper Details
Unwrapping the illiberal Zeitgeist: gender and the rule of law in post-communist Europe	View Paper Details