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https://doi.org/10.5817/PC2018-1-28
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Illiberalism, populism and democracy in East and West
[journal article]
Abstract The emergence and persistence of right-wing populist parties (RWPs) in almost all advanced democracies in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and across the Atlantic is a result of a new cleavage that revolves around the question of how open borders should be for goods, services, capital, migrants, refu... view more
The emergence and persistence of right-wing populist parties (RWPs) in almost all advanced democracies in Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and across the Atlantic is a result of a new cleavage that revolves around the question of how open borders should be for goods, services, capital, migrants, refugees, human rights, and the transfer of political power to supranational institutions: Cosmopolitans opt for opening the nation states’ borders, while communitarians prefer more closed and controlled borders in a broader sense. An economic and cultural-discursive representation gap on the communitarian side allowed RWPs to enter the political stage along this cleavage. The composition of their electorate, their thematic focus and their discourse support our hypothesis. We demonstrate that whether RWPs pose a danger for democracy crucially depends on whether they are in government or opposition and whether the context is that of well-established or less consolidated democracies. We also discuss whether polarization is deemed harmful to democracy. RWPs can indeed have a positive impact on a re-intensified political participation. However, if the illiberalism of RWPs dominates policies, politics, and the political discourse in less consolidated democracies, such as in Hungary and Poland, liberal democracy is in danger.... view less
Keywords
communitarism; cosmopolitanism; discourse; populism; political right; democracy; supranationality
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
cleavage; illiberal democracy
Document language
English
Publication Year
2018
Page/Pages
p. 28-44
Journal
Politologický časopis - Czech Journal of Political Science, 25 (2018) 1
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/10419/209741
ISSN
1211-3247
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications