Category: illiberal democracy

Understanding Central Europe’s illiberal metamorphosis

     

To understand Central Europe ’s illiberal metamorphosis, bear in mind that the region’s political imperative for almost three decades was “Imitate the West!” That process went by different names –… Read more »

From Hungary to EU: Orban exporting ‘alternative to liberal democracy’

     

Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, is often accused of promoting a form of ‘illiberal democracy’, where governance is rooted in the popular support of a majority of the country’s citizens,… Read more »

Hungary: how EU can take charge of illiberal trouble maker

     

With an alarming rise in anti-Semitism and attacks on press and academic freedom, Hungarian democracy had another bad year in 2018, notes Brookings analyst William A. Galston. More than 400… Read more »

‘Neo-autocracy’: turning democracy into a tool of oppression

     

Władysław Frasyniuk (above) championed democracy in the face of Communist rule in Poland in the 80s. Now, he warns the freedom he fought for is starting to slip away. (The… Read more »

A ‘dark day for freedom’: Hungary’s democracy ‘dying a slow death’

     

European Union leaders warned that it was a red line, and dared Hungary not to cross it. The U.S. ambassador pegged the issue as his top priority. In the streets of… Read more »

‘Striking fragility’ in willingness to defend core democratic values?

     

The illiberal attitudes underpinning the populist upsurge in Europe are not unique to that continent, analysts suggest. There is a striking fragility in Americans’ willingness to defend core democratic values,… Read more »

Persuasive populism enters the mainstream

     

Populist parties have more than tripled their support in Europe in the last 20 years, securing enough votes to put their leaders into government posts in 11 countries and challenging… Read more »

Populists have weakened, not destroyed democratic institutions

     

National populists operate within the shell of democratic institutions, and have weakened but not destroyed them, the FT’s John Lloyd writes in a review of Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the… Read more »

Beginning of the end for CEE populists?

     

  The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), wants to adopt a resolution in defense of liberal democracies, Euronews reports. The largest political grouping in the EU is reacting to mounting… Read more »

When democracies collapse, what remains?

     

When democracy erodes, what remains? When a democracy backslides, where does it wind up? When democracy dies, what is born? asks Dan Slater, a Professor of Political Science and Director… Read more »