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Varieties of Populism in Europe: Is the Rule of Law in Danger?

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Abstract

What the current surge of populism shows is that the rule of law and liberal democracy find themselves in great danger when the breadth of democratic support for their core principles begins to decrease. Both in Hungary and Poland, the populist forces relatively easily undermined the rule of law and democracy, and steered politics in a dangerous authoritarian direction. Ultimately, democratic political parties with credible political ideas and platforms offer the best hope for protection of liberal democracy. As the Western European examples show, as long as there exist credible liberal political platforms, the threat to the rule of law and democracy is not existential. While populists in Western Europe challenge certain liberal values and policies, they lack the capacity to threaten the essence of liberal democracy.

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Notes

  1. Judis (2016), Muller (2016a), Mudde and Kaltwasser (2017).

  2. Mudde (2004), p. 534.

  3. Taggart (2000), p. 4.

  4. Canovan (1981), Gidron and Bonikowski (2013) Mudde and Kaltwasser (2013), pp. 495–498.

  5. Grzymala Busse (2017), p.3.

  6. Ethnic-driven nationalism or ethno-nationalism is often about a shared ancestry, religion, and language and a common dissent. It has to be differentiated from civic nationalism, which is often based on political principles and respect for institutions that rest on subjective identification with a nation. See Bonikowski (2017), pp. 189–190.

  7. The left-wing populism of Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain does not fall into this category. On this point, see Judis (2016), Rodrik (2018).

  8. Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart adopt such approach in definining authoritarian populism, see Norris and Inglehart (2018).

  9. Bonikowski (2017), pp. 189–190.

  10. Grzymala Busse (2017), p. 8.

  11. Muller (2016a), pp. 60–64.

  12. European Populism: Trends, Threats, and Future Prospects (2017).

  13. Brubaker (2017), p.1191.

  14. Brubaker (2017), p.1208.

  15. European Populism: Trends, Threats, and Future Prospects (2017).

  16. Id.

  17. Freedom House, Nations in Transit (2017).

  18. Barber (2015).

  19. Applebaum (2016), Orenstein (2013), pp. 374–402.

  20. Illiberal democracies are understood here, following Fareed Zakaria definition, as: “democratically elected regimes, often ones that have been reelected of reaffirmed through referenda are routinely ignoring constitutional limits on their power and depriving their citizens of basic rights and freedoms.” See Zakaria (1997), p. 22.

  21. Müller (2014), pp. 14–19.

  22. Stanley (2017), pp. 140–160, Grzymala Busse (2017).

  23. Erlanger (2017).

  24. Putinism represents a mixture of economic statism, political authoritarianism and Russian Orthodox fundamentalism. Putin’s economic nationalism is strongly embedded in his “conservative revolution”, emphasizing the importance of Russian national “character” being at odds with traditional liberal values and principles. See Applebaum (2013).

  25. The Economist, Orban and the Wind from the East (2011).

  26. Edy (2014).

  27. Bánkuti et al. (2012a), p. 268, Bánkuti et al. (2012b), pp.138–141.

  28. Kelemen (2016).

  29. Kaczyñski Announces Aim to Change Polish Constitution, Radio Poland (2016).

  30. Sadurski (2018), pp. 35–44.

  31. Sadurski (2018), ibidem.

  32. Müller (2016b).

  33. Fomina and Kucharczyk (2016), p. 61.

  34. Koczanowicz (2016), p. 94.

  35. Muller (2016a), p. 20.

  36. Brubaker (2017), p.1191.

  37. Id.

  38. Id at 1208.

  39. Huq (2018), p. 12.

  40. Grudzinska-Gross (2014), p. 664.

  41. Csillag and Szelényi (2015), pp. 1–27.

  42. Taggart (2017), pp. 248–263.

  43. European Populism: Trends, Threats, and Future Prospects (2017).

  44. The Financial Times, Italy's coalition talks: can two tribes become one (2018).

  45. The Financial Times, European politics: leaders struggle to contain rising populism (2017).

  46. European Populism: Trends, Threats, and Future Prospects (2017).

  47. Heinisch (2017).

  48. Judis (2016).

  49. Marin (2016).

  50. Rodrik (2018).

  51. Schmitt (1985).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Bojan Bugaric

  2. Faculty of Administration, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Alenka Kuhelj

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  1. Bojan Bugaric
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  2. Alenka Kuhelj
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Correspondence to Bojan Bugaric.

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Bugaric, B., Kuhelj, A. Varieties of Populism in Europe: Is the Rule of Law in Danger?. Hague J Rule Law 10, 21–33 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40803-018-0075-4

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