The stigmatisation of Central Europe via (failed) socialisation narrative

Abstract

This article builds on the criticism of the international socialisation narrative which mistakenly represents compliance as socialisation and recognises agency only to the extent it fails to comply. It pertains to the argument that such a narrative can lead to stigmatisation which reinforces social orders characterised by specific hierarchies of power and spatial relations. The example of EU member states from Central Europe (CE) that went from 'star pupils of norm adoption' to 'misbehaving children of Europe' serves as a case study. The research of literature treating CE countries as socialisees and international organisations (OSCE, NATO and EU) as socialisers shows two things. Firstly, it demonstrates that CE countries internalised norms even before they complied with norm-based rules, which challenges views that (under) socialisation was (is) an issue with these states. Secondly, it shows that non-compliance of the CE countries did not have much to do with non-acceptance of norms as such. It was rather related to hypersensitivity towards specific norms and rules in a context of multiple crises with asymmetric effects for the CE countries. In this process, the EU and CE used (non)compliance to reinforce their identities, thus creating stigma (the EU) and the attempt to resist it or even wear it as the source of pride (CE).

Enlargement of the EU Towards the East: A Pivotal Change in EU’s External Policy?

“…The findings of the discourse analysis and the narratives used, provide arguments for the following discussion. Firstly, for the B3 and V4 countries, the need for prestige stems from a sense of inferiority related to their position between two worlds (West and East), their existence as "small states" and their view as pupils (Lovec et al, 2021) integrating into the EU. Supporting the EaP is about emphasising equality, increasing importance in the EU, and thus raising self-esteem.…”

The ‘Brussels Bubble’: Populism in Slovenia In the Eu Crises Context

“…EU accession led to disenchantment with democracy (Rupnik, 2007), with dissenting voices from the onset characterised by a "pure anti-establishment appeal" (Učeň, 2007). The global and EU crises of liberal internationalism resulted in the loss of international 'superregulatory' centre of authority while sustaining and even increasing asymmetric dependencies and negative effects in the CEE (Lovec, 2019;Lovec and Bojinović Fenko, 2020;Lovec et al, 2021). The weak and underdeveloped institutions created an opportunity for authoritarian forms to rise (Bugarič and Ginsburg, 2016), such as "illiberal democracies".…”

The Orbán regime as the ‘perfect autocracy’: The emergence of the ‘zombie democracy’ in Hungary

“…1 The theory of the third -generation autocracy in ECE, described in three stages and three periods, has been elaborated in my 'parallel' paper Third wave of autocracy in East Central Europe (in the Journal of Comparative Politics, 2022), see also my recent books (Ágh, 2019a,2021) and papers (Ágh, 2016, 2019b, 2020a, b). The current 'decline of democracy' literature, see for instance Bayer and Wanat (2021), Berman (2021), Coman and Volintiru (2021), Ghodsee and Orenstein (2021), Higgins (2021), Kochenov and Dimitrovs (2021), Lovec et al (2021), Maurice (2021), Sabatini and Berg (2021), Scheiring (2020) and Waldner and Lust (2018) cannot be discussed here in detail, but they have been taken into consideration in this paper.…”