Call for Papers

24 - 25 September 2016
Faculty of Political Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia

Decline or Eclipse of Democracy in Europe’s New Democracies?

Application Deadline: 1 June, 2016
Organised by: Serbian Political Science Association (SPSA)
Contact: biljana.djordjevic@fpn.bg.ac.rs

In the last few years, growing security concerns and economic downturn have sparked, or exposed, undemocratic tendencies in most European states that established democratic institutions during the ‘third wave’. In parts of Southern Europe, clientelism and corruption, and unresponsive democratic institutions, have produced great dissatisfaction among citizens and triggered the rise of radical politics, electoral and otherwise. In some Central European states, ruling parties have dismantled checks and balances and pushed for unrestrained majoritarian rule. In much of the post-communist Balkans, democratic institutions have eroded considerably and most states now find themselves hovering over – or in exceptional cases below – the threshold of democracy. The question does not seem to be whether there is a decline of democracy in most Europe’s ‘third wave’ democracies but how significant it is. Global trends with regard to democratic development are broadly similar. Generous assessments cite stagnation, while others talk about a downturn in democratisation.

In Serbia and much of the Balkans, a sweeping trend of democracy building from the early 2000s has gradually given way to clientelism and corruption, unchecked majoritarianism, and often also restrictions on press freedom and pressures on opposition parties. These developments do not only obstruct attempts to introduce the rule of law, but also undermine the very foundations of democracy, such as political competition and basic freedoms. Incentives from European Union membership/candidate status appear to have had positive impact on democratic development only in the short term. For one thing, the EU appears unable to defend democracy and the rule of law in its member states; for another, conditionality as the means of democracy promotion with regard to candidate states is heavily constrained by other priorities, such as state building and security issues. A recent refugee and migrant crises have only amplified the problem, along with weak implementation of minority rights.

Democratisation studies provide a range of perspectives to explore political developments of this kind, including democratic consolidation and the quality of democracy, but also democratic breakdown, hybrid regimes and reverse waves of democratisation. The problem today seems to be more of a ‘normalisation’ of authoritarian tendencies and less of the stability and quality of democratic institutions. Scholars have discussed a range of factors that may undermine democratic development in new democracies, such as economic downturns, socio-economic inequalities and de-regulated capitalism, legacies of prior non-democratic regimes, state and nation building problems, weak civil society and international factors – not least security threats, immigration and ill-conceived democracy promotion policies.

Are perhaps the roots of democratic malaise in new democracies the same as those in old democracies? Some authors claim that neoliberal pressures have helped eviscerate democracy into corporatism. Others point to inherent weaknesses of democracy, such as the weakening of representative institutions and empowerment of unelected bodies, low transformative and motivational capacity of democratic institutions, and inability to self-modify and formulate innovative policies. Radical authors suggest that transformation of the concept of democracy is at stake, while others talk about post-democracy in which outcomes of democratic procedures are for the most part under control of dominant groups.

Responses to authoritarian tendencies have also been part of research agenda. >From the normative perspective, the defence of democracy involves the return to, and reflection on, the fundamental and emancipatory values of democracy, such as public trust in the ideas of equality and self-government (participation). The question is whether democratic politics is being ‘hollowed out’, which results in the loss of trust, low turnouts, resistance to the establishment and/or a search for alternative forms of political activism. From the perspective of empirical research on democratisation, scholars have explored radical movements of both the Left and Right, resistance to authoritarian rule ‘from below’, pro-democracy coalition building and civil society development, legacies of protest politics and traditions of resistance.

This conference will build upon these and other relevant academic perspectives to explore various dimensions of recent undemocratic tendencies in Europe’s ‘third wave’ democracies, not least their causes, dynamics and implications for democratic development in coming years, as well as attempts to overcome such tendencies. We invite scholars who work on democracy and democratisation from various theoretical and methodological perspectives to submit paper proposals that focus on the following issues, broadly conceived:

• Radicalisation of politics in economic crisis
• Decline of liberal values and radical politics in Europe’s new democracies
• The collapse of horizontal accountability and unrestrained majoritarianism in the post-communist Europe
• Europe’s old and new democracies: similar pressures on democracy, different outcomes?
• Fundamental values and constitutional politics under authoritarian governance
• Eclipse of democracy? Democratic institutions and authoritarian governance in the Balkans
• Eclipse of democracy? Restrictions on press freedom in the Balkans
• Oppositional responses to authoritarian governance
• State building and democratisation in the Balkans
• European Union, democracy promotion and democratisation outcomes in the Balkans
• Europe’s refugee and migrant crises and its consequences for democratic development in the Balkans
• Responsibility and justice in Europe’s refugee and migrant crises

Submission guidelines:

Please email paper proposals (including a paper title, abstract of 250-300 words, author’s full name, affiliation, email address, and short bio) to Ms Biljana Djordjevic, SPSA Executive Secretary: biljana.djordjevic@fpn.bg.ac.rs
Deadline for paper proposals is 1 June 2016. The organizing committee will notify all applicants of the outcome of their paper proposal submission by 1 July 2016.

Please also note:

Selection of papers will be considered for publication as part of an edited collection and a special issue of a regional journal Political perspectives (Političke perspektive).​