Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Europeanisation in the EU New Member States. Aspects and Research Agendas
- Part one Democracy after Enlargement
- The Quality of Democracy
- Dilemmas of Europeanisation: Eastern and Central Europe after the EU Enlargement
- The Eastern Enlargement of the European Union: Challenges to Democracy?
- Political Elite Behaviour in Eastern Central Europe: Provoking Populism and Nationalism?
- From Democracy Fatigue to Populist Backlash
- Part two Identity Transformations
- Part three Civil Society Organisations in Central and Eastern Europe
- Part four Europeanisation of International Relations
- Index
From Democracy Fatigue to Populist Backlash
from Part one - Democracy after Enlargement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Europeanisation in the EU New Member States. Aspects and Research Agendas
- Part one Democracy after Enlargement
- The Quality of Democracy
- Dilemmas of Europeanisation: Eastern and Central Europe after the EU Enlargement
- The Eastern Enlargement of the European Union: Challenges to Democracy?
- Political Elite Behaviour in Eastern Central Europe: Provoking Populism and Nationalism?
- From Democracy Fatigue to Populist Backlash
- Part two Identity Transformations
- Part three Civil Society Organisations in Central and Eastern Europe
- Part four Europeanisation of International Relations
- Index
Summary
Almost two decades after the fall of communism, the political landscape of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is marked by vivid contrasts. The good news is that ten former Soviet-bloc countries are now firmly anchored within the European Union, the democratic club established by West European democracies half a century ago. Moreover, a recent wave of democratic change from Ukraine to the Balkans suggests that even those countries which initially failed to achieve a democratic transition may get a second chance. The bad news is that several CEE countries in which democracy is allegedly consolidated have recently displayed signs of backsliding (even if these are not captured in their still very good Freedom House ratings). Meanwhile, the complexions of the Rose and Orange revolutions are looking less rosy, and the new dispensations in Ukraine and Georgia sometimes seem not so different from the old ones.
To be sure, such generalisations need to be qualified. Eastern Europe in the old sense is no more, and we see a variety of different trajectories of democratisation in post-communist countries. Still, it is possible to identify certain common patterns and issues. The real question is not “Is democracy facing an imminent threat?” Instead, we should ask “What kinds of democracies are emerging after the transitions in East Central Europe, and what are their vulnerabilities?” and “What is the significance of their troubles from a Europe-wide perspective?”
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Democracy, State and SocietyEuropean Integration in Central and Eastern Europe, pp. 95 - 104Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2011