Democratic backsliding and the rule of law in the European Union

The principles of democracy and the rule of law have come under sustained pressure in the European Union since the early 2010s. Illiberal and antidemocratic tendencies in member states such as Hungary, Slovakia, Italy, and—until 2023—Poland have exposed the Union’s vulnerabilities at a time when war has returned to Europe. Research therefore moves beyond established debates to explore new dynamics of backsliding and resilience. In Poland, attempts to reverse democratic backsliding illustrate the difficulty of dismantling illiberal legacies when institutions remain captured. Italy highlights how governments can pursue illiberal policies without being formally accused of backsliding. Slovakia under Robert Fico demonstrates that backsliding can also be driven by left-wing populist actors who provoke the EU incrementally. Hungary, as the EU’s most entrenched case, now adds an external dimension by acting as Vladimir Putin’s advocate within the Union. The erosion of democratic norms and the rule of law undermines the EU’s cohesion, destabilizes its normative foundations, and weakens its global standing. The Union has developed new instruments, such as funding conditionality; however, their application and effectiveness remain to be seen. Europe’s liberal democracy is endangered not only by Putin’s hybrid warfare but also by transatlantic shifts: Donald Trump’s attacks on democratic institutions underscore that the United States can no longer be relied upon, leaving the EU increasingly alone in defending liberal democracy. This section seeks to probe these intertwining dynamics of democratic and rule of law backsliding and the operational internal and external challenges of the EU. We invite contributions that extend the standard discussions in the literature while also engaging with new developments in the field. Some of the relevant guiding questions include: What shapes does democratic backsliding take in the EU today? Why is democratic recovery so challenging? How do illiberal policies evolve within the Union? How do global shifts influence democracy and the rule of law in the EU? What new approaches can advance the study of the rule of law, democratic backsliding, and resilience? Besides that, we welcome individual papers but also full panels addressing three major themes: - Understanding present-day challenges to democracy and the rule of law in the EU, from empirical, theoretical, or normative perspectives - The responses of different European actors to violations of democracy and the rule of law - The external dimension of democratic backsliding