The Populist Turn in Central and Eastern Europe: Is Deliberative Democracy Part of the Solution?

The rise of populism in Central and Eastern Europe as a broader democratic crisis – Developments in Hungary, Poland and Romania indicate failure of representative politics post-1989 – Reorienting politics towards a deliberative democratic culture can help answer the bottom-up critique exploited by populists – Citizen-centric deliberative approaches take seriously long-standing discontent with liberal democracy and can provide an alternative to populism

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Mapping students’ organizations in post-communist Romania: a structuration perspective

International Review of Social Research ◽

10.2478/irsr-2018-0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 35-46

Author(s):

Viorel Proteasa ◽

Liviu Andreescu ◽

Vlad Botgros ◽

Alexandra Dodiță

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Social Theory ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Top Down ◽

Bottom Up ◽

Simple Question ◽

The Waves

Abstract Who is who in Romanian student representation? In this article we answer this (apparently) simple question. We start with early 1990, when the Romanian campuses experienced ample changes – part of the societal transformations which swept over Central and Eastern Europe. Our ambitions in this text are twofold: (1) to construct a map of student federations in post-communist Romania, and (2) to identify and describe the waves of structuration of the field. In doing so, we revert to classical social theory and document the emergence of “organizational archetypes” of student representation. We identify two types of structuration, “bottom-up” and “top-down”. We find evidence regarding the resilience of the “bottom-up” organizational archetypes in relation to the successive attempts of “top-down” (re)structuration.

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

Communist and Post-Communist Studies ◽

10.1016/j.postcomstud.2008.03.006 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 41 (2) ◽

pp. 191-203 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Bojan Bugaric

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Rule Of Law ◽

Liberal Democracy ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Legal Institutions ◽

Significant Progress ◽

The Rule Of Law ◽

Electoral Democracy

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.

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The Curious Case of Slovakia

International Journal of Social Quality ◽

10.3167/ijsq.2020.100203 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Zuzana Reptova Novakova

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Liberal Democracy ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Well Being ◽

Transition To Democracy ◽

Institutional Reforms ◽

Economic Variables ◽

Social Quality ◽

Individual Potential

A singular focus on the formal institutional reforms and economic variables misses the mark when it comes to explaining the decreasing support for liberal democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. This article suggests that over thirty years after the beginning of the “transition to democracy,” a closer look at the conditional factors of social quality can shed a different light on the transformation of societal realities. In particular, it pays attention to the extent to which people are able to participate in social and societal relationships under conditions that enhance their well-being, capacity, and individual potential. Slovakia is chosen as a case study, as it is both representative of some of the wider malaises characteristic of the younger European democracies and as it is a rather interesting example of liberal democracy within the region.

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The Rise of Nationalist-Authoritarian Populism and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe

Constitutionalism under Stress ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198864738.003.0002 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 21-38

Author(s):

Bojan Bugarič

Keyword(s):

Eastern Europe ◽

Liberal Democracy ◽

Crucial Role ◽

Historical Perspective ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

Political Power ◽

The Past ◽

Authoritarian Populism ◽

Central Argument ◽

Modern Form

The central argument of this chapter is that the rise of nationalist-populism in CCE is best explained by using a longue durée historical perspective. I argue that the past legacy of derailed attempts to institutionalize a modern form of liberal democracy in this region decisively contributed to the recent surge of nationalist-populism. Nevertheless, past legacies did not automatically translate into the populist surge. From this perspective, it is interesting to ask why the populists in CEE have been politically more successful in dismantling liberal democracy than their Western European counterparts. I argue that several factors have been at play, but that one of the key reasons contributing to the rise of populism in Hungary then Poland was the absence of credible liberal politico-economic alternatives, which turned out to play a crucial role in helping the populists to fill this political gap and successfully seize political power in Hungary and Poland.

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