Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-995ml Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T19:41:32.075Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 8 - Conservative Populism in Defiance of Anti-Totalitarian Constitutional Democracy

from III - Anti-Constitutionalism After Post-Communism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2022

Martin Krygier
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Adam Czarnota
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Wojciech Sadurski
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
Get access

Summary

For a long time, democratisation in East-Central Europe has been understood as a process of convergence towards (Western) European models of liberal and constitutional democracy. The process of the construction of democracy became increasingly understood as relatively complete, in that former communist countries were considered to have reached relatively mature or ‘consolidated’ versions of liberal democracy by the time of their entry into the EU.1 The narrative of ‘consolidated democracy’, with its emphasis on rapprochement of the Western model and completion of the liberal-democratic design, is likely to have overlooked the dimension of structural conflict in these societies, both with regard to the – in many ways – ambiguous rupture with communism in 1989 and the process of polity-making and democracy-building in its wake. The argument in this chapter is that in some post-communist societies the construction of political communities and the constitution of liberal democracy remained conflictual and contested during the entire period of transformation. In some countries, in particular Hungary and Poland, the current ‘backlash’ or democratic crisis did not ‘fall from the sky’, but is part and parcel of an ongoing struggle over the finalité of post-communist transformation.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antal, Attila, The Rise of Hungarian Populism: State Autocracy and the Orbán Regime (Howard House: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2019)Google Scholar
Arato, Andrew, Civil Society, Constitution, and Legitimacy (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000)Google Scholar
Arato, Andrew, Post Sovereign Constitutional Making: Learning and Legitimacy (Oxford University Press, 2016)Google Scholar
Arato, Andrew, ‘How We Got Here? Transition Failures, their Causes and the Populist Interest in the Constitution’ (2019) 45(9–10) Philosophy & Social Criticism 1106Google Scholar
Arato, Andrew and Miklósi, Zoltan, ‘Constitution Making and Transitional Politics in Hungary’ in Miller, L (ed) Framing the State in Times of Transition. Case Studies in Constitution Making (USIP, 2010)Google Scholar
Avbelj, Matej and Cernic, Jernej L, The Impact of European Institutions on the Rule of Law and Democracy: Slovenia and Beyond (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020)Google Scholar
Bánkuti, Miklós, Gábor Halmai and Kim Lane Scheppele, ‘Hungary’s Illiberal Turn: Disabling the Constitution’ in Til, Péter Krasztevand Jon van (eds) The Hungarian Patient: Social Opposition to an Illiberal Democracy (Central European University Press, 2015)Google Scholar
Bill, Stanley and Stanley, BenWhose Poland is it to be? PiS and the Struggle between Monism and Pluralism’ (2020) 36(3) East European Politics 1Google Scholar
Blokker, PaulPopulist Counter-Constitutionalism, Conservatism, and Legal Fundamentalism’ (2019) 15(3) European Constitutional Law Review 519CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blokker, Paul, ‘Building Democracy by Legal Means? The Contestation of Human Rights and Constitutionalism in East-Central Europe’ (2020) 18(3) Journal of Modern European History 335Google Scholar
Blokker, Paul, ‘Populism as a Constitutional Project’ (2020) 17(2) International Journal of Constitutional Law 536Google Scholar
Blokker, Paul, ‘Populism in East-Central Europe: A Revolt against Western Liberalism?’ in Crum, Ben and Olveart, Alvaro (eds) ‘Democratic Systems and Populist Challenges in Europe, Deliverable 5.4’ (RECONNECT, 2020)Google Scholar
Blokker, Paul, ‘Populist Understandings of the Law: A Conservative Backlash?’ (2020) 13(3) Partecipazione e Conflitto 1433Google Scholar
Bozóki, AndrásThe Illusion of Inclusion: Configurations of Populism in Hungary’ in Kopeček, Michal and Wcislik, Piotr (eds) Thinking Through Transition: Liberal Democracy, Authoritarian Pasts, and Intellectual History in East Central Europe After 1989 (Central European University Press, 2015)Google Scholar
Bozóki, András and Simon, Eszter, ‘Two Faces of Hungary: From Democratization to Democratic Backsliding’ in Ramet, Sabrina P and Hassenstab, Christine M (eds) Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989 (Cambridge University Press, 2019)Google Scholar
Brier, Robert, ‘A Politics of Meaning: Culture and Constitution-Drafting in Poland’s Third Republic’ (Unpublished PhD thesis, Frankfurt (Oder), European University Viadrina, 2006)Google Scholar
Brier, Robert, ‘The Roots of the “Fourth Republic” Solidarity’s Cultural Legacy to Polish Politics’ (2009) 23(1) East European Politics and Societies 63CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bucholc, MartaLiberal Pedagogy: Jerzy Szacki on the Past and Modern Polish Liberalisms’ (2019) 8 Roczniki Historii Socjologii/History of Sociology Annual Review 7Google Scholar
Buzogány, Aron and Varga, Mihai, ‘The Ideational Foundations of the Illiberal Backlash in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Hungary’ (2018) 26(6) Review of International Political Economy 811Google Scholar
Buzogány, Aron and Varga, Mihai, ‘Against “Post-Communism”: The Conservative Dawn in Hungary’ in Bluhm, Katharina and Varga, Mihai (eds) New Conservatives in Russia and East Central Europe (Routledge, 2018)Google Scholar
Buzogány, Aron and Varga, Mihai, ‘The Foreign Policy of Populists in Power: Contesting Liberalism in Poland and Hungary’ (Latest articles) Geopolitics (20 March 2020)Google Scholar
Chronowski, Nóra, Varju, Márton, Bárd, Petra and Sulyok, Gábor, ‘Hungary: Constitutional (R)evolution or Regression?’ in Albi, Anneli and Bardutzky, Samo (eds) National Constitutions in European and Global Governance: Democracy, Rights, the Rule of Law: National Reports (Asser Press, 2019)Google Scholar
Davies, Christian, ‘Hostile Takeover: How Law and Justice Captured Poland’s Courts’ (Nations in Transit brief, Freedom House 2018) freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/poland%20brief%20final.pdfGoogle Scholar
Dawson, James and Hanley, Sean, ‘The Fading Mirage of the “Liberal Consensus”: What’s Wrong With East-Central Europe?’ (2016) 27(1) Journal of Democracy 20Google Scholar
Ekiert, Grzegorz, ‘Civil Society as a Threat to Democracy: Organizational Bases of the Populist Counterrevolution in Poland’ (Working paper, CES Open Forum Series 2019–2020)Google Scholar
European Commission for Democracy Through Law (Venice Commission): Council of Europe, ‘Opinion on the New Constitution of Hungary, Adopted by the Venice Commission at its 87th Plenary Session (Venice, 17–18 June 2011)’ (Council of Europe, 2011) venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/CDL-AD(2011)016-E.aspxGoogle Scholar
Falk, Barbara, The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe: Citizen Intellectuals and Philosopher Kings (Central European University Press, 2003)Google Scholar
Folvarčný, Adam and Kopeček, Lubomír, ‘Which Conservatism? The Identity of the Polish Law and Justice party’ (2020) 16(1) Politics in Central Europe 159Google Scholar
Gherghina, Sergiu, Mişcoiu, Sergiu and Soare, Sorina (eds) Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and Its Diverse Forms (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013)Google Scholar
Gliszczyńska-Grabias, Aleksandra and Kozłowski, Wojciech, ‘Calling Murders by Their Names as Criminal Offence – A Risk of Statutory Negationism in Poland’ Verfassungsblog (1 February 2018) verfassungsblog.de/calling-murders-by-their-names-as-criminal-offence-a-risk-of-statutory-negationism-in-poland/Google Scholar
Greskovits, Béla, ‘Rebuilding the Hungarian Right through Civil Organization and Contention: The Civic Circles Movement’ (Research Paper No. RSCAS 37, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence, 2017)Google Scholar
Greskovits, Béla, ‘Rebuilding the Hungarian Right through Conquering Civil Society: The Civic Circles Movement’ (2020) 36(2) East European Politics 247CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guasti, Petra ‘The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Central and Eastern Europe: The Rise of Autocracy and Democratic Resilience’ (2020) 7(2) Democratic Theory 47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gyorfi, Tamas, Against the New Constitutionalism (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016)Google Scholar
Halmai, Gábor, ‘Religion and Constitutionalism’ (MTA Law Working Paper 2015/5, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia/Hungarian Academy of Sciences) jog.tk.mta.hu/uploads/files/mtalwp/2015_05_%20Halmai.pdfGoogle Scholar
Halmai, Gábor, ‘Fidesz and Faith: Ethno-Nationalism in Hungary’ Constitutionalism and Politics (European University Institute, 29 June 2018) blogs.eui.eu/constitutionalism-politics-working-group/fidesz-faith-ethno-nationalism-hungary/Google Scholar
Halmai, Gábor, Gábor Mészáros, and Kim Lane Scheppele, ‘So It Goes – Part II’ Verfassungsblog (20 November 2020) verfassungsblog.de/so-it-goes-part-ii/Google Scholar
Holubec, Stanislav and Rae, Gavin, ‘A conservative convergence? The differences and similarities of the conservative right in the Czech Republic and Poland’ (2020) 16(2) Contemporary Politics 189Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch, ‘Wrong Direction on Rights: Assessing the Impact of Hungary’s New Constitution and Law’ (Report, Human Rights Watch, 2013) hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/hungary0513_ForUpload.pdfGoogle Scholar
Kim, Seongcheol, ‘Discourse, Hegemony, and Populism in the Visegrád Four (Routledge, 2021)Google Scholar
Kiss, Csilla, ‘From Liberalism to Conservatism: The Federation of Young Democrats in Post-Communist Hungary’ (2002) 16(3) East European Politics and Societies 739Google Scholar
Koncewicz, Tomasz Tadeusz, ‘On the Politics of Resentment, Mis-Memory, and Constitutional Fidelity: The Demise of the Polish Overlapping Consensus?’ in Belavusau, Uladzislau and Aleksandra Gliszczyńska-Grabias, (eds) Law and Memory: Towards Legal Governance of History (Cambridge University Press, 2017)Google Scholar
Kopeček, Michal, ‘Human Rights Facing a National Past: Dissident “Civic Patriotism” and the Return of History in East Central Europe, 1968–1989’ (2012) 38(4) Geschichte und Gesellschaft/History and Society 573Google Scholar
Kopeček, Michal, ‘Sovereignty, “Return to Europe” and Democratic Distrust in the East after 1989 in the Light of Brexit’ (2019) 28(1) Contemporary European History 73Google Scholar
Kopeček, Michal and Richardson-Little, Ned, ‘Introduction:(Re-) Constituting the State and Law during the “Long Transformation of 1989” in East Central Europe’ (2020) 18(3) Journal of Modern European History 275Google Scholar
Kovács, Zoltán, ‘Q&A on the Upcoming Amendment to Hungary’s Fundamental Law’ About Hungary (18 June 2018) abouthungary.hu/fundamental-law/qa-on-the-upcoming-amendment-to-hungarys-fundamental-law/Google Scholar
Kowalewska, Emilia, ‘Between Civic and Legal Constitutionalism: Dynamics of Poland’s Constitution-Making Projects of the 1990s’ (2020) 10(4) Oñati Socio-Legal Series 903Google Scholar
Krastev, Ivan and Holmes, Stephen, The Light That Failed: Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy (Pegasus Books, 2020)Google Scholar
Lánczi, András, ‘What is Postcommunism?’ (2007) 29(1) Society and Economy 65CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marczewski, Paweł, ‘Freedom to Exclude: Conservative CSOs in Law and Justice Poland’ in Youngs, Richard (ed) The Mobilization of Conservative Civil Society (Carnegie Endowment, 2018)Google Scholar
Matyja, Rafał, ‘Emergency Exit’ in Wygura, Karolina and Kuisz, Jarosław (eds) The End of the Liberal Mind: Poland’s New Politics (Kultura Liberalna Foundation, 2019)Google Scholar
Merkel, Wolfgang, ‘Plausible Theory, Unexpected Results: The Rapid Democratic Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe’ in Bakke, Elisabeth and Peters, Ingo (eds) Twenty Years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Transitions, State Break-Up and Democratic Politics in Central Europe and Germany (Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2011)Google Scholar
Metcalfe, Percy, ‘“No Apologies, No Shame”: The Rise of Poland’s Guerrilla LGBT Activists’ Notes From Poland (12 August 2020) notesfrompoland.com/2020/08/12/no-apologies-no-shame-the-rise-of-polands-guerrilla-lgbt-activists/Google Scholar
Molnár, Virág, ‘Civil Society, Radicalism and the Rediscovery of Mythic Nationalism’ (2016) 22(1) Nations and Nationalism 165Google Scholar
Molnár, Virág, ‘Civil Society and the Right-wing Radicalization of the Public Sphere in Hungary’ in Feischmidt, Margit and Majtényi, Balázs (eds) The Rise of Populist Nationalism: Social Resentments and Capturing the Constitution in Hungary (Central European University Press, 2020)Google Scholar
Olechowski, Thomas, ‘The Beginnings of Constitutional Justice’ in Madsen, Mikael and Thornhill, Chris (eds) Law and the Formation of Modern Europe: Perspectives from the Historical Sociology of Law (Cambridge University Press, 2014)Google Scholar
Palonen, Emilia, ‘Rupture and Continuity: Fidesz and the Hungarian Revolutionary Tradition’ (2011) 5 Cahiers de l’Institut d’histoire de la Révolution française [Notebooks of the Institute of the History of the French Revolution] journals.openedition.org/lrf/353Google Scholar
Piotrowski, Grzegorz, ‘Civil Society in Illiberal Democracy: The Case of Poland’ (2020) 27(2) Politologický časopis/Czech Journal of Political Science 196Google Scholar
Pokol, Béla, ‘Forms of Judicial Power’ (2010) 4 Jogelméleti Szemle/Journal of Legal Theory 308Google Scholar
Pokol, Béla, The Juristocratic State (Diálog Campus Kiadó, 2017)Google Scholar
Połońska, Eva, ‘Watchdog, Lapdog, or Attack Dog? Public Service Media and the Law and Justice Government in Poland’ in Połońska, Eva and Beckett, Charlie (eds) Public Service Broadcasting and Media Systems in Troubled European Democracies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)Google Scholar
Polyák, Gábor, ‘Media in Hungary: Three pillars of an illiberal democracy’ in Połońska, Eva and Beckett, Charlie (eds) Public Service Broadcasting and Media Systems in Troubled European Democracies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)Google Scholar
Rajcsányi, Gellért, ‘Intellectual Background: The Democratic Transition Is In Progress As We Speak – An Interview with András Lánczi and Gyula Tellér’ in O’Sullivan, John and Pócza, Kálmán (eds) The Second Term of Viktor Orbán: Beyond Prejudice and Enthusiasm (Danube Institute/London: Social Affairs Unit, 2015)Google Scholar
Sadurski, Wojciech, ‘How Democracy Dies (in Poland): A Case Study of Anti-Constitutional Populist Backsliding’ (Sydney Law School Research Paper 18/01, University of Sydney, January 2018) papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3103491Google Scholar
Sadurski, Wojciech, Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown (Oxford University Press, 2019)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sajó, András, ‘The Constitution of Illiberal Democracy as a Theory about Society’ (2019) 208(4) Polish Sociological Review 396Google Scholar
Schöpflin, György, ‘Fidesz: The Political Project’ (2013) 01 Aspen Review aspen.review/article/2017/hungary%3a-the-fidesz-project/Google Scholar
Skąpska, Grażyna, ‘Abuse of the Constitution as a Means of Political Change: Sociological Reflections on the Crisis of Constitutionalism in Poland’ (2019) 208(4) Polish Sociological Review 421Google Scholar
Stumpf, István, ‘Rule of Law, Division of Powers, Constitutionalism’ (2014) 55(4) Acta Juridica Hungarica/Hungarian Journal of Legal Studies 299Google Scholar
Sulikowski, Adam, ‘The Return of Forgotten Critique: Some Remarks on the intellectual Sources of the Polish Populist Revolution’ (2020) 45(2) Review of Central and East European Law 376CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szczerbiak, Aleks, ‘“Social Poland” Defeats “Liberal Poland”? The September–October 2005 Polish Parliamentary and Presidential Elections’ (2007) 23(2) Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 203Google Scholar
Tacik, Przemysław, ‘Polish Constitutional Identity under the Illiberal Turn’ in Mercescu, Alexandra (ed) Constitutional Identities in Central and Eastern Europe (Peter Lang, 2019)Google Scholar
Thornhill, Chris, The Sociology of Law and the Global Transformation of Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2018)Google Scholar
Trencsényi, Balázs, ‘Beyond Liminality? The Kulturkampf of the Early 2000s in East Central Europe’ (2014) 41(1) Boundary 2 135Google Scholar
Varga, Mihai ‘The Return of Economic Nationalism to East Central Europe: Right‐Wing Intellectual Milieus and Anti‐Liberal Resentment’ (2020) 27(1) Nations and Nationalism 206Google Scholar
Verdery, Katherine, National Ideology under Socialism: Identity and Cultural Politics in Ceausescu’s Romania (University of California Press, 1991)Google Scholar
Wigura, Karolina, ‘Introduction: Diagnosing the End of the Liberal Mind’ in Wigura, Karolina and Kuisz, Jarosław (eds) The End of the Liberal Mind (Kultura Liberalna Foundation, 2020)Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×