Democratic erosion and resilience in Central and Eastern Europe: Turning the tide?

Recent parliamentary elections in Central and Eastern Europe were marked both by democratic erosion and resilience. Whereas presidential elections in Poland saw Duda and PiS achieve a narrow victory by exploiting incumbency benefits during the pandemic, voters in Slovakia rejected the corrupt SMER in 2020, the populist GERB in Bulgaria narrowly lost power in the spring of 2021, and the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and ANO were defeated in the Czech general elections in October 2021. Similar developments can be observed further afield, for example, in the Caucasus. Although contemporary studies of democratic backsliding warn against the dangers of ethno-populism, nativism, illiberalism, and authoritarianism in Eastern Europe and Eurasia – and these negative trends deserve rigorous academic attention - significantly less attention has been paid to the countertrends of democratic resilience. Democratic resilience entails civic mobilization for democracy and the rule of law, overcoming fragmentation among political opposition forces, and assembling heterogeneous electoral coalitions. Since 2018, thousands have mobilized for democracy, the rule of law, and media freedoms across the region (e.g., in Poland, Ukraine, Serbia, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia). Civic mobilization and contestation in Central and Eastern Europe are at the highest levels since the fall of communism. These protests reflect the societal demand for democratic governance, transparency, and fairness. Do these trends indicate that the region is turning the tide on backsliding? Under what conditions have the opposition and civil society successfully challenged illiberal leaders in power? How do democratic backsliding and resilience in Central and Eastern Europe compare to other European democracies? What are the tradeoffs involved in utilizing the different potential indicators of democratic erosion and resilience? This Section seeks panels addressing diverse dimensions of democratic backsliding and democratic resilience in Central and Eastern Europe. We invite proposals for panels and papers that address both domestic and international sources and consequences of democratic erosion and democratic resilience. We invite panel chairs and paper givers to advance the frontiers of knowledge on democratic resilience, to push beyond the state-of-the-art and to offer new perspectives on backsliding during the Covid-19 pandemic. Panels and papers on international sources of resilience might consider the role of the EU and other international actors, whereas domestically focused studies might examine elections, checks and balances, media, civic mobilization, and informal norms. Panels addressing electoral sources of resilience might investigate the strategies of opposition parties to oust illiberal/populist incumbents and the role of civil society in electoral mobilization; while those about checks and balances might explore the resilience of formal institutions, particularly the role of parliaments, courts, and government oversight agencies, along with veto players. We also welcome panels that investigate the role of media, media ownership and independence, with an emphasis on the role of state media in facilitating democratic erosion and resilience. Regarding civic mobilizations, we invite panels considering the sources, mechanisms, and impact of civic mobilization on identity issues, including but not limited to reproductive rights and LGBTQ issues, and also on democracy, especially the rule of law and anti-corruption. Finally, panel proposals on informal norms may consider the role of forbearance, the influence of a political culture of civility, as well as other informal norms, that enhance our understanding of the sources of democratic resilience. In addition to panels and papers topics discussed above, we also encourage submissions that address failures to avert backsliding and obstacles to democratic resilience. The tide of backsliding and the counter-tide of resilience is a dynamic process. Research sensitive to the interaction of both processes that can open avenues to new scholarly insights on the endurance of liberal democracy is especially welcome. The Section expects to organize one roundtable on democratic resilience and seven to ten regular panels that address the relationship between backsliding and resilience. The SG welcomes panel submissions that illuminate challenges faced by old and new liberal democracies, and hopes to receive methodologically diverse proposals. We encourage applications from diverse backgrounds, and preference will be given to panels that mirror the diversity of the ECPR research community in terms of gender, ethnicity, age, rank, location and regional specialization.