Illiberal Trends and Anti-EU Politics in East Central Europe: Major Findings and Avenues for Future Research

This concluding chapter summarises central findings of the volume and discusses avenues for future research. It first presents the insights of the individual chapters and demonstrates for each part of the book how the chapters speak to each other. It then highlights selected key findings, discusses theoretical implications more generally and identifies questions and subject areas for future research.

Differential Illiberalism: Classifying Illiberal Trends in Central European Party Politics

This chapter explores illiberal trends in the party systems of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Focusing on ANO, SMER, Fidesz and PiS, it first provides a comparative analysis of the ideology these parties use to appeal to the voters. Secondly, it traces the parties in power and analyses how they are translating the illiberal political concepts into laws and policy-making practices. The overarching aim is to understand the relevance that rule of law and legal issues have for the self-positioning vis-à-vis the national public and EU. Based on comparison and the empirical findings, it provides a typology of Central European illiberalism based on the difference between pragmatic and ideological illiberalism.

Examining Illiberal Trends and Anti-EU Politics in East Central Europe from a Domestic Perspective: State of Research and Outline of the Book

This opening chapter introduces the subject matter and objectives of the book. It first explains central terms and provides an overview of the different illiberal trends in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It then sketches recent conflicts between EU actors and the four East Central European states and explains why these conflicts are of a new quality. Next, it summarises the state of research on illiberal backsliding and on the EU’s tools against it and identifies shortcomings and gaps in the literature. Finally, it outlines the aims as well as the overall structure of the book and provides an overview of the contributions.

Illiberal and Anti-EU Politics in the Name of the People? Euroscepticism in East Central Europe 2004–2019 in Comparative Perspective

This chapter describes patterns, trends and determinants of public Euroscepticism in East Central Europe (ECE). It investigates whether public opinion on European integration in this region is connected to the contestation of both the immigration policies and the constitutional principles of the EU by the respective national governments. By applying longitudinal and comparative analyses based on European Election Studies from 2004 to 2019, it shows public support for European integration in ECE as more closely linked to instrumental performance assessments than in the EU average and as structured by country-specific rather than region-specific patterns. Cultural issues, like immigration and conceptions of democracy, which dominate ECE governmental politics, are only related to public Euroscepticism in some of those countries. Based on these results, the chapter suggests that the connection between the illiberal and anti-EU politics of ECE national governments and public Euroscepticism is loose and conditional upon the national context.

Is There an East–West Divide over European Solidarity? Comparing European Citizens’ Attitudes Towards Cross-Border Solidarity 2016

The Euro and sovereign debt crises since 2008, as well as the following Great Recession, have challenged the strength of European solidarity between EU citizens and member states. This chapter analyses the strength of European solidarity within East Central Europe and other European countries in two dimensions: citizens’ willingness to support indebted European countries financially (European fiscal solidarity) and their willingness to reduce welfare differences among EU member states (European territorial solidarity). The analyses are based on a comparative survey conducted in 13 European countries in 2016. Results show that citizens displayed a notably high level of European solidarity in both dimensions. While ECE countries showed slightly lower approval rates for European fiscal solidarity, their demand for European territorial solidarity is average. However, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland do not form a unique cluster standing out on these topics, making further policies of European integration possible.

Towards a Political Theory of Democratic Backsliding? Generalising the East Central European Experience

This chapter argues in favour of a general theory of democratic backsliding which should cover three dimensions: (1) the societal one (changing citizenry), (2) the institutional one (changing institutions of democratic government) and (3) the processual one (the nature of the democratic backsliding itself). Following these aspects, the chapter explores general developments of democratic backsliding, which also apply to East Central Europe. Regarding the societal dimension, it points to changes in the nature of citizenship towards spectatorship and plebiscitary understanding of democracy. Considering the institutional dimension, it focuses on two types of state capture: the party state capture and the corporate state capture. With regard to the processual dimension, the chapter argues that democratic backsliding does not imply fully fledged authoritarianism but rather represents a retrogression to semi-democracy—a potentially stable regime type, in which the dismantling of the rule of law goes hand in hand with cyclical elections preserving democratic standards.

Does It Help to Call a Spade a Spade? Examining the Legal Bases and Effects of Rule of Law-Related Infringement Procedures Against Hungary

Whether infringement procedures are suitable to enforce the EU’s foundational values is contested. According to critics, they lead to a miscategorisation of the problems because rule of law concerns are reframed as concrete EU law violations. Others see infringement procedures as a powerful alternative to the Article 7 procedure, stressing their potential to depoliticise rule of law-related conflicts. As we still lack systematic studies on the deployment and effects of infringement procedures in rule of law related cases, this chapter analyses all seven procedures with rule of law relevance launched against Hungary since 2010. It analyses whether the Commission indeed miscategorised the cases and how the Hungarian government reacted legally and rhetorically. The findings cast doubt on the premises that the procedures depoliticise the conflicts and that the correct categorisation of rule of law problems could induce compliance with the EU’s foundational values.

Same Same, but Different: Domestic Conditions of Illiberal Backlash Against Universal Rights in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

In recent years, mobilisation along the cultural dimension intensified in East-Central Europe. Conservative groups, the Catholic Church and the radical right, as well as radicalised mainstream politicians, are increasingly adopting the populist socially conservative rhetoric, blocking pro-universal rights legislation and running electoral campaigns on the rollback of universal rights. These dynamics are an integral part of the illiberal backlash which centres around the notion of sovereignty. It rejects demands for universal rights as foreign-forced on the country by the EU or CoE. Using historical institutionalism to compare domestic processes around minority rights in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, this chapter shows that the mechanics of the EU member states’ backlash against minority accommodation can be mainly attributed to the domestic actors. As a result of different domestic configurations, some European norms take root, while in other cases, domestic actors seek to prevent accommodation and rollback rights.

Talking Past Each Other: On Common Misperceptions in the Rule of Law Debate

This chapter deals with shortcomings of the EU policies vis-à-vis Hungary and partially also Poland. Firstly, it depicts the argument that the EU’s diagnosis of illiberal backsliding is too narrow. When assessing the quality of democracy in Hungary and Poland, the Commission and the European Parliament almost exclusively focus on recent constitutional changes, and thereby overlook many other deficits which lead to a distorted picture. Secondly, there is a legitimate debate on the meaning of the basic values of the EU. Article 2 TEU contains many open-textured expressions, which might be understood differently. Thirdly, due to the incomplete diagnosis, the instruments currently being used to combat backsliding tendencies seem ill-suited on the one hand, and, on the other, the EU surprisingly does not seem to make best use of currently available tools. The chapter concludes by highlighting and discussing possible improvements of EU strategies towards backsliding states.

Party Rhetoric and Action Compared: Examining Politicisation and Compliance in the Field of Asylum and Migration Policy in the Czech Republic and Hungary

Since the European refugee crisis 2015, the rather bureaucratic asylum and migration policy has become a highly politicised issue in ECE countries. The politicisation process started while political parties were involved with the policy. However, many studies have ignored the practice of executives’ and administrations’ action in this domain and knowledge of whether this public anti-EU rhetoric really resulted in non-compliance, therefore, remains limited. This chapter interlinks politicisation and non-compliance research in a comparative case study of Hungary and the Czech Republic. While combining findings of expert interviews, data on party manifestos and infringement procedures, it concludes that the partial politicisation did not lead to broader non-compliance in the Czech case, whereas the governmental-led politicisation in Hungary resulted in non-compliance. This difference is explained by the fact that in Hungary, the asylum-related administration, like other bureaucratic fields, has become increasingly re-politicised during the last decade.