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

Abstract

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.

Who is populist in Central and Eastern Europe? Comparative analysis of prime ministers' populist disclosure

“…These violations are most often, but not exclusively related to openly challenging constitutional courts, curtailing the independence of the media, limiting the professionalism of the civil service and limiting constitutionallygranted minority rights (Bugaric 2008;Gallina 2010;Navia and Walker 2010;Levitsky and Loxton 2013;Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser 2013). The following section discusses the qualitative data appraised by holistic grading that supports the numerical scores presented in Table 2 and analyzes how well these data relate to the authoritarian tendencies of populist prime ministers.…”

“…In addition, it has encouraged research into the causes of populism and its consequences by means of cross-regional comparative studies (Albertazzi and McDonnell 2008;Seligson 2007;Doyle 2011;Navia and Walker 2010;Hawkins 2012;Mudde and Kaltwasser 2012;Levitsky and Loxton 2013;Kriesi 2014;Tupy 2006;Gallina 2008). Nevertheless, systematic studies of populism are rare and those that apply to CEE have mostly focused on single cases or a limited number of cases (Jasiewicz 2008;Bozóki 2012;Bugaric 2008). In this respect, this study is an original attempt to measure the populist discourse of a larger number of individual CEE prime ministers.…”

“…Janša's populism in Slovenia and his ambiguous democratic practices are well-documented and include attacks on constitutional court decisions, media freedom and involvement in corruption scandals (Rizman 2006;Bugaric 2008). A Manichean vision is evident throughout his speeches.…”

“…The holistic grading of political speeches identified strong populism in only one case, while only five contemporary CEE Prime ministers out of 27 turned out to be moderately populist. Previous studies have speculated about the causes of populism and its influences on democratic structure (Carpenter 1997;Gallina 2010;Bugaric 2008;Rupnik 2007). Data in this study suggest that the undemocratic lapses of CEE prime ministers might have more to do with a generally undemocratic political culture than populism alone.…”

Acquisition of Environmental Awareness: The Interplay with Institutional Development

“…For example, an unstable institutional framework created as a result of a drastic institutional change, as had happened in Central and Eastern European countries, led to fragility and uncertainty of the system. As a consequence, negative trends in social interrelations contributed to the appearance of separative factors in the maintenance of common values (Bugaric, 2008). As is known, these countries are also characterised by weaker environmental performance in respect to their Western European counterparts.…”