Democratic Apostasy in the EU: What Does Party Politics Have to Do with It?
Author: Melisa H.Mehmedović
Against the backdrop of democracy backsliding across the European Union, the goal of this paper is to analyze the role of the Union and its institutions in facilitating or containing the trend of the deterioration of democratic credentials of its members. By shedding light on the cases of the retrogression of democratic institutions in Hungary and Poland and conducting a comparative analysis of the EU institutions’ response to its members’ transgressions, this paper aims to fathom whether the existence of party politics at the supranational level has translated into a discrepancy between the Union’s reactions to the events that have unfolded in the two member states. Furthermore, this paper explores if the absence of decisive action on the part of the EU and it turning a blind eye to certain cases of misdemeanor has paved the way for the realization of authoritarian pretensions at the national level.
Key words: Democratic backsliding; Party politics; Poland; Hungary; European Union
VPI BH RESEARCH INTERNSHIP paper, Foreign Policy Initiative BH, 2021.
Mentor: Lejla Ramić-Mesihović, PhD
English version PDF*: Democratic Apostasy in the EU: What Does Party Politics Have to Do with It?
