Reverse Norm Diffusion: How External Actors Reshape Liberal Democracy Within the European Union

European liberal democracy is undergoing a transformation that current theories of norm diffusion and contestation cannot fully explain. Significant part of the existing literature has exhaustively examined how the EU diffuses democratic norms externally through conditionality, persuasion, and socialization. Others have explored how external actors such as Russia, China, Turkey, the Gulf countries and other illiberal powers seek to influence the democratic agenda of the EU in candidate and neighbouring countries candidate countries. Despite theor importance, these approaches are based on a one-way logic, assuming liberal norms expand outward and illiberal models are on the margins seeking to influence the former. This assumption obscures a growing paradox: external actors increasingly seek to reshape European democracies from within, using democratic institutions and practices themselves as vehicles of transformation. This paper introduces the concept of reverse norm diffusion to capture these dynamics. Unlike traditional foreign interference, reverse norm diffusion operates in standard democratic avenues and reframes democratic rhetoric in an effort to de-legitimize rights and pluralism. It thus creates what we can call the democratic legitimation paradox: the openness of liberal democracy creates the very means through which illiberal actors can alter its foundations. Existing theories of contestation and resistance produce important insights but are unable to account for the active and externally-aided infusion of competing norms into European democratic discourses and practices. Reverse norm diffusion conceptualizes this process as a structured flow of norms originating outside the EU, travelling through intermediary actors and channels, and becoming embedded in domestic political narratives that redefine what counts as legitimate democratic governance. The paper identifies key mechanisms of democratic de-legitimation, including disinformation, electoral interference, covert financial support, cyber operations, and strategic backing of domestic political and societal actors. The paper illustrates these dynamics through selected European Union member states, chosen to capture variation in vulnerability and resilience to reverse norm diffusion. Rather than offering full case studies, the analysis traces how democratic language and practices are reframed across political debate, party programmes, media discourse, and policy documents. Methodologically, the paper combines qualitative narrative and discourse analysis with AI-enabled text analysis, allowing for the systematic detection of discursive shifts in democratic rhetoric across time and media outlets. This approach provides analytical precision in identifying when and how democratic concepts are redefined in illiberal directions. By mapping the reverse flow of norms from external origins into domestic political discourse, the paper provides systematic evidence of how counter-democratic norms diffuse across diverse European contexts. Beyond its theoretical contribution, the paper offers tools for diagnosing democratic vulnerability and resilience, highlighting the conditions under which democratic openness can be preserved without hollowing out liberal content. In doing so, it addresses a core question for Europe’s future: can liberal democracy withstand the exploitation of its own openness when external actors seek to reshape it from within?