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European political parties’ complicity in democratic backsliding

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2021

FABIO WOLKENSTEIN Open the ORCID record for FABIO WOLKENSTEIN [Opens in a new window]
FABIO WOLKENSTEIN*
Affiliation:
Aarhus Universitet Institut for Statskundskab, Political Science, Bartholins Allé 7, Aarhus, DK8000 and Universiteit van Amsterdam Faculteit der Maatschappij–en Gedragswetenschappen, Political Science, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, Amsterdam, Netherlands, NL1012 DL
*
Email: wolkenstein@ps.au.dk
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Abstract

This article discusses the contribution of European political parties to democratic backsliding. It focuses on the European People’s Party’s efforts to protect the Hungarian government, and the European Conservatives and Reformists party’s permissive acceptance of the Polish government’s attacks on democracy and the rule of law, analysing these patterns of behaviour as a form of complicity in democratic backsliding. In a second step, the article examines the existing possibilities and normative justification for sanctioning European political parties that make a complicit contribution to democratic backsliding.

Keywords

complicitydemocratic backslidingEuropean political partiesHungarymilitant democracyPoland
Type
Research Article
Information
Global Constitutionalism , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 55 - 82
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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