Sunshine after the storm? Reversing Democratic Backsliding in European Democracies: the cases of Poland and the United Kingdom

The rise of radical-right populism has created both the political conditions for, and generated impetus towards, the enactment of policies which undermine democracy in several European countries. For instance, Poland saw democracy eroded over a number of years in large part due to the authoritarian and nativist policies pursued by the PiS-led government between 2015 and 2023. The United Kingdom, despite its status as one of the maturest democracies, saw its constitutional vulnerabilities exploited by a right-wing majority Conservative government between 2010 and 2024 which, particularly following 2016, pursued an illiberal and at times anti-democratic agenda in office. Both governments have now been removed by voters, who elected an anti PiS coalition in Poland, and a Labour majority in the UK, each of which have the task of repairing their respective countries' damaged democracies. This paper introduces a three-level framework for analysis of democratic restoration, consisting of; reversal - the use of governing power to undo specific anti-democratic measures; deepening - the pursuit of new policies which seek to further improve democracy and strengthen the rule of law, and; entrenchment – attempting to guard against future anti-democratic change. This framework is applied to the early efforts of the Civic Coalition and its coalition partners in Poland, and the Labour government in the UK. It finds some efforts towards reversal, but little evidence of agendas that reflect planned deepening or consolidation. This process, carried out by democratic forces, requires maintaining the rule of law - i.e. by using democratic mechanisms in the process of re-democratization. Difficulty arises due to the ‘cascading’ nature of the undemocratic changes, which simultaneously introduced whole system of barriers and blockages that are now difficult to overcome during democratic restoration. The paper finds some efforts towards reversal, but little evidence of agendas that reflect planned deepening or consolidation of democracy. This suggests that democracy will remain vulnerable to future radical right or anti-democratic governments, particularly as such parties, ideas, and organisations continue to establish themselves as mainstays of routine political competition in different European countries.