The multi-level dynamics of rule of law enforcement: domestic contestation and institutional accountability I

Abstract

The Rule of Law (RoL) crisis is one of the most serious challenges currently facing the European Union (EU) and, in recent years, it has consistently attracted researchers’ attention. Nevertheless, most of the literature has focused either on the role of the EU in enforcing its RoL instruments, or on the politics of non-compliance in backsliding member states. By contrast, how and why the RoL crisis and EU’s enforcement have permeated the national dimension, both in contexts where liberal democracy has deteriorated and in the rest of the member states, have attracted less attention. This panel brings together empirical research on citizens, national parliaments and subnational consultative bodies in order to explore how RoL enforcement unfolds across different contexts. By doing so, the panel explores in depth how RoL issues are interpreted, prioritised and politicised in different domestic arenas and by different actors, which ultimately influences enforcement outputs at the EU level. The panel investigates a wide range of interrelated processes, namely: how social networks condition citizens’ willingness to defend the rule of law; how political parties adjust their discursive strategies when moving between government and opposition; how national parliaments engage in holding governments and EU institutions to account in enforcement cases in third member states; and how subnational and societal actors engage with RoL enforcement through EU consultative bodies. Methodologically, the papers rely on a diverse set of tools, including survey experiments, qualitative discourse analysis, interviews, and document analysis; therefore, capturing the complexity of operationalising the multi-level dynamics of RoL enforcement in the EU.

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