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