What does support for democracy mean in the Eastern and Central Europe?

The starting point of the analysis is the observation that in such East and Central European countries as Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania around 45% of citizens think that democracy is a very good system to govern their countries. At the same time Freedom House classifies Belarus as “consolidated authoritarian regime”, Poland – as “semi-consolidated democracy” and Lithuania – as “consolidated democracy”. Moreover, in Ukraine only 34% think democracy is very good and in Hungary – 61%. These two countries are both “transitional or hybrid regimes” according to Freedom House Classification. The question is though whether the inhabitants of these mentioned countries think of the same “democracy” when they assess if it a good system for their country? The WVS / EVS data allow to shed light on the meaning attached to the term “democracy”, (see e.g Welzel and Kirsch, 2017), but they did not analyse particular countries. In my paper I am going to analyse the attitudes towards democracy and understanding of this notion in the mentioned countries as a part of their relationship to the West and as a part of their perceived position in Europe. Within several recent years Poland and Hungary noted the substantial decrease in the Freedom House’s democracy score. What does this mean for the perspective of Poland and Hungary in the EU? What are the reasons people become skeptical about democracy as a way of governing their countries? The initial analyses show that different ways of understanding democracy relate to a different level of important resources—economic, social, and cultural—and related to a separate set of values and expectations. Can the disappointment with the regime performance lead to increasing skepticism towards democracy as such and to erosion of democracy in the mentioned countries? The main source of data is the last wave of WVS/EVS, but there are also references to more recent studies conducted in the analysed countries.