Populism, liberal democracy, and the rule of law in Central and Eastern Europe

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bojan Bugaric

Populism is on the rise in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Persistent attacks on legal institutions of liberal democracy represent the most troubling aspect of the rising populism in CEE. The democracies in CEE are not about to collapse because of the rise of populism, yet the populist challenge to liberal democracy has to be taken seriously. While there has been significant progress in the development of ‘electoral democracy’ in the region, constitutional liberalism and the rule of law still remain weak. Only strong, independent, and professional legal institutions and respect for the rule of law can bring further consolidation of democracy in the region.

2020 ◽  
pp. 162-181
Author(s):  
Ireneusz Paweł Karolewski

This chapter focuses on Central and Eastern European (CEE) member states of the EU, and how they positioned themselves in the new constellation of conflicts within the EU in the aftermath of the multiple crisis. It deals mainly with the Visegrad Group (V4) and explores its ‘repositioning’ in regard to two crisis-ridden policy fields of the EU: controversies about the rule of law and the refugee crisis. With regard to the former issue, the chapter discusses Poland as the most prominent case among the CEE countries. Against this background, it highlights two specific aspects of domestic politics: the memory games that the V4 countries play with their past and the Euroscepticism of government circles as well as a broader public.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Andrea L. P. Pirro ◽  
Ben Stanley

In recent years, Central and Eastern Europe have furnished several examples of illiberalism in power. The most prominent and consequential cases are Fidesz, which has ruled in Hungary since 2010, and Law and Justice (PiS), which has ruled in Poland since 2015. In both cases, illiberal governments have embarked upon an extensive project of political reform aimed at dismantling the liberal-democratic order. We examine the nature, scope, and consequences of these processes of autocratisation. We first argue that illiberal changes are ideologically founded and identify how both populism and nativism figure in the policymaking of illiberals in power. We then show how these practices emerge from a common “illiberal playbook”—a paradigm of policy change comprising forms of forging, bending, and breaking—and elaborate on the notion that illiberal governments are using legalism to kill liberalism. The fine-grained approach that we employ allows us to distinguish between different rationales and gradations of illiberal policymaking, and assess their implications for the rule of law, executive power, and civil rights and freedoms


2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (38) ◽  
pp. 38-55
Author(s):  
Adam Kwiatkowski

This article deals with one of the priority areas, the area of European security. Based on the literature on the subject and an analysis of the situation in Central and Eastern Europe, the author presents various types of current threats evident in Belarus, Poland, Russia, Turkey and Hungary, as a result of, among other things, societal alienation from the ruling class. The ignoring of their people and lack of tolerance in these countries has provoked a rebellion in society against governments’ exercise of power and approach to the rule of law. By analysing aspects of the threat, the author tries to uncover the motives of governments that are trying to maintain this approach and are ready to sacrifice the health and lives of their citizens.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 255-276
Author(s):  
Nick Cheesman ◽  
Ronald Janse

Abstract Why did Martin Krygier become a rule of law guy? This Introduction to a Special Issue of the Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, which consists of 33 short essays celebrating Krygier as a colleague, mentor and friend, discusses some of the factors which prompted him to develop a distinct and influential body of work on the rule of law over the past three decades: the rule of law revival, especially in Central and Eastern Europe; his involvement with Philip Selznick; and his dialogue with other prominent theorists, including Gianluigi Palombella and Jeremy Waldron. The Introduction gives a sense of the importance of Krygier’s personal background and history, and it also discusses some of the key features of his theory, and how these have developed over the past decades.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (02) ◽  
pp. 528-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanoch Dagan ◽  
Roy Kreitner

New legal realism (NLR) furthers the legal realist legacy by focusing attention on both the pertinent social science and the craft that typifies legal discourse and legal institutions. NLR's globalized ambitions also highlight the potential of a nonstatist view of law. The realist view of law raises three challenges facing NLR: identifying the “lingua franca” of law as an academic discipline within which NLR insights on translation and synthesis should be situated; conceptualizing NLR's focus on bottom-up investigation, so that it does not defy the rule of law; and recognizing the normative underpinning for NLR's reformist impulse.


2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-491
Author(s):  
Paul Hare

AbstractKornai's earlier works embodied the idea that state institutions formed a system with a strong tendency to reproduce itself, and hence to resist minor reforms. Thus, at the end of socialism, huge changes were needed in politics, economics, and the law to build a new system oriented towards the market-type economy, which would again be stable, self-reinforcing and self-sustaining. Transition promoted the development of new states in Eastern Europe that conformed to the Copenhagen criteria for the EU accession. Were we too hasty in thinking that we had succeeded? The new systems are not returning to the previous one, and only in a few areas have the basic norms of a market-type economy been set aside in Hungary or Poland. But concerns arise at the interface between politics, law and economics – to do with the rule of law, the nature and role of the state, and the interactions between parliament, the executive and the judiciary. Unavoidably, there is also an interesting international dimension here, represented by the shift from the Warsaw Pact and CMEA to NATO and the EU. This paper explores these issues in the light of some of Kornai's recent analysis of developments in Hungary, while also drawing on his very insightful earlier works.


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