Illiberalism

Abstract

Abstract“Illiberalism” has assumed an invigorated if unanticipated significance in the 21st century. Aspects of illiberalism populate not only states long known as indifferent to such principles as personal liberty, human equality and the rule of law but have expanded in “liberal” democracies as their rulers employ purportedly “illiberal” practices more frequently than in the recent past. Indeed, the term “illiberal” seems to have lost its negative aura in the context of state action. We contend that illiberalism represents either an opposition to procedural democratic norms—as disruptive illiberalism—or an ideological struggle—termed ideological illiberalism. We first discuss the term as used in the vast literature on regime types in the debate on authoritarian/democratic hybrid-regimes. We then turn to the key puzzle in what one may call “illiberalism studies”: the rise of illiberal practices and policies in liberal democracies. To inform our analysis empirically, we investigate the ways in which illiberal arguments and institutions (notably camps) were deployed historically and in immigration policy. We conclude with an example of illiberal policy from modern day Hungary.

Distinctions With a Difference: Illiberalism and Authoritarianism in Scholarly Study

“…This construction also allows for illiberalism to be applied to ideologies and worldviews common on both the right and left as well as in variations of what could reasonably be understood as de facto centrist for many contemporary societies. 15 Describing a movement or political ideology as illiberal, using this definition, does not necessitate opposition to electoral democracy per se-although it does oppose the deeper, counter-majoritarian institutions built into the full structural setup of modern liberal democracy, as many scholars have noted (Kauth and King, 2020;Tushnet, 2021;van der Brug et al, 2021). If we take illiberal as a descriptor of individual beliefs, we find that most people harbor a variety of illiberal views on different social and political matters, while large subsets of a given population will hold more comprehensive illiberal worldviews (Inglehart, 2018;Inglehart and Baker, 2000).…”

On Gender and Illiberalism: Lessons From Slovak Parliamentary Debates

“…In general, illiberalism could be effectively conceptualised in two major ways, as "disruptive illiberalism" or as "ideological illiberalism" (Kauth & King, 2020). Disruptive illiberalism "describes antidemocratic illiberal practices…and the primary targets of such anti-democratic practices are what one might call liberal institutions, as well as electoral norms and procedures: the judiciary, the press, academia, and international NGOs" (Kauth & King, 2020, pp.…”

In the Name of the Conservative People: Slovakia’s Gendered Illiberal Transformation

“…While illiberalism can be seen as merely a set of disruptive practices that threaten the institutional norms and procedures of liberal democracies-an aspect which often receives the label of democratic backsliding (Waldner & Lust, 2018)-there is an ideological element to illiberalism which emerges from its politics of exclusion that demarks a hierarchy of who should and who should not be seen as a fully equal member of society (Kauth & King, 2020). However, the growing literature on illiberalism rarely examines the gendered dimension of this trend (cf.…”