On a moving train: How democratic actors oppose backsliding

How do democratic actors oppose their own disempowerment? Democratic backsliding as a gradual process not only erodes democracy, but also progressively reduces the power of domestic actors to provide checks and balances on governmental power. Often, incumbent governments disable the institutions and actors meant to hold them accountable. At the same time, domestic responses are crucial to overcoming or at least mitigating democratic backsliding, be it by questioning incumbents' actions or by offering alternatives to their policies. Drawing on the case of Hungary, the present paper studies how (opposition) parties politicize democratic backsliding within the institution of parliament. As one of the most drastic cases of democratic backsliding, Hungary saw drastic changes to democratic procedures over the past years. This includes several high-profile laws that were heavily criticized by domestic and international actors. Moreover, specific laws also restricted the rights of parliament itself, thereby narrowing the opportunities for public debate around democratic procedures. The paper addresses three related research questions: To which extent do opposition parties draw on the concept of (liberal) democracy to criticize the incumbent government’s policies? How did the parliamentary debate unfold on key proposals restricting opposition rights? And how did democratic backsliding affect these debates with growing thresholds for opposition activities within parliament? The paper uses text-as-data methods to study plenary debates between 2009 (one year before the election of Fidesz) and 2019. This builds on similar studies of the politicization of democratic governance by parties in other countries, however, much of this literature has focused on high-quality democracies, instead of analyzing debates around institutional change in places that experience democratic breakdown. Thereby, the paper contributes to our understanding of the 'mechanics' of democratic backsliding, providing an inside perspective on processes of autocratization.