Luca Tomini

Reassessing Democratic Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe and the Role of the EU

Over the past two decades, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have completed a long transition from authoritarian rule, and joining the EU has been considered to be an indication of the end of the consolidation process. However, this path was anything but linear and in many cases it was marked by concentration and abuse of executive power, a systematic political patronage and a plebiscitary interpretation of democracy. In order to shed light on the meaning of these phenomena, this paper provides for an analysis of democratic consolidation in these countries by way of comparing the cases of Bulgaria, Poland and Slovakia.

Democratizing Central and Eastern Europe : Successes and failures of the European Union

Introduction 1 Effective Control and Proper Exercise of the Executive Power: Between Democratic Consolidation and Europeanization 2 Democratic Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe: Domestic Factors, Paths and Outcomes 3 The External Influence on Democracy of the European Union: Strategies, Tools and Limits 4 Building Democratic and Accountable Governments 5 Ensuring Integrity: Between Political Behaviour and Policy-making 6 Accountability and Integrity: Between National Paths and European Pressures 7 Conclusions

A Comparative Perspective on the State of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe

THE SCHOLARSHIP ON CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN POLITICS and societies is well established in the literature. Over the past two decades, scholars have addressed a variety of topics including the role of civil society in transition and democratic consolidation (Linz & Stepan 1996a, 1996b; Přibáň & Young 1999; Pridham 2001; Pollack &Wielgohs 2004); the process of institution-building and the functioning of institutions (Karp 1994; Zielonka 2001; Malova & Haughton 2002); the development of political parties and their contribution to democracy (Kitschelt 1992; De Waele 1999; Lewis 2001, 2008; Hough 2005; DeeganKrause & Haughton 2010; Burnell & Gerrits 2010); the role of external actors in the process of consolidation of democracy, and in particular the role of the EU and the enlargement process (Papadimitriou 2002; Dimitrova 2004; Schimmelfennig & Sedelmeier 2005; Vachudova 2005; Epstein & Sedelmeier 2009; Morlino & Sadurski 2010; O’Brennan 2011); populist parties (Mudde 2007; De Waele & Pacześniak 2010; Pankowski 2011) and the ambiguous role of nationalism (Latawski 1994; Auer 2004); the problem of the rights of ethnic, linguistic, religious and national minorities (Taras 1998; Rechel 2009); the relationship between justice and politics (Anderson et al. 2005; Coman & De Waele 2007; Coman 2009; Piana 2010); the construction of a market economy and the relationship between democracy and economic policies (Jeffries 1996; Stark & Bruszt 1998; Hasselman 2006; Myant & Drahokoupil 2010); political cultures (Pollack 2003; Klingemann 2008); the problems related to corruption (Smilov & Toplak 2007; Schmidt-Pfister & Moroff 2012); and the development of regionalisation and the role of local governments (Hughes et al. 2004a, 2004b; Coulson & Campbell 2007). Confronting methodologies and key assumptions supported by valuable empirical data, scholars endeavoured to understand different types and intensities of political change— including politics, policies and polity—as well as their democratisation, consolidation, Europeanisation and, more recently, quality of democracy. However, criticism with regard to inertia and retrenchment in the region has reappeared—or never disappeared. In a variety of fields, political scientists and observers have portrayed a sombre outcome of the simultaneous processes of democratisation and European integration (Sadurski 2004; Coman 2009; Pridham 2008; Haughton 2011). In this respect, many scholars have argued that the prospect of EU membership motivates the behaviour of Central and Eastern European governments (Cirtautas & Schimmelfennig 2010, p. 424). Yet, the number of EUROPE-ASIA STUDIES Vol. 66, No. 6, August 2014, 853–858

Varieties of contemporary democratic breakdown and regression: A comparative analysis

The goal of this article is to understand which combinations of explanatory conditions account for the qualitative differences within forms of democratic breakdown (i.e., transition from democracy to a hybrid or authoritarian regime) and democratic regression (i.e., transition within democracy through a loss of democratic quality). The analysis focuses particularly on the specific features of those processes of change ending up with a transition from democratic rule, compared to those producing a simple loss of democratic quality within the democratic regime. Applying two-step fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), the study aims to integrate different types of explanatory factors, offering a fresh and comprehensive perspective on this phenomenon.

The state of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe : a comparative perspective

Introduction: A Comparative Perspective on the State of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe Ramona Coman & Luca Tomini 1. Reassessing Democratic Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe and the Role of the EU Luca Tomini 2. Quo Vadis Judicial Reforms? The Quest for Judicial Independence in Central and Eastern Europe Ramona Coman 3. How Stable and Reasonable is Postcommunist Public Opinion? The Case of the Czech Republic Andrew Roberts 4. The State of Political Participation in Post-Communist Democracies: Low but Surprisingly Little Biased Citizen Engagement Filip Kostelka

Divergent Democracies? The Limits of the Current Political Integration

This chapter addresses the themes of this volume, which are the relations between European integration and Europeanization and the transition from incremental to structural change, in respect of the role of the EU in the democratization process of Central and Eastern Europe and specifically the development of the political conditionality and EU strategy on democracy in candidate countries. The end of communism in Central and Eastern Europe was a typical exogenous critical juncture impacting on the evolution of the EU’s approach to the issue of democracy in the candidate countries. Over the following two decades, these developments caused in turn a process of incremental Europeanization. The result, however, was a differentiated impact of Europeanization on the new member states, due to both internal and external factors. Moreover, this differentiated Europeanization obliged the EU to adapt its strategies and tools of influence. This fact results per se in deep implications for the political integration in the European Union and the relationship between Europeanization and EU integration.