Open AccessPartisan Complicity in Democratic Backsliding
Author(s) -
Fabio Wolkenstein
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
global justice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1835-6842
DOI - 10.21248/gjn.12.02.206
Subject(s) - complicity , sanctions , democracy , political science , government (linguistics) , european union , political economy , international trade , law , economics , politics , philosophy , linguistics
Recent developments in Hungary and Poland have made democratic backsliding a major issue of concern within the European Union (EU). This article focuses on the secondary agents that facilitate democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland: the European People’s Party (EPP), which has continually protected the Hungarian Fidesz government from EU sanctions, and the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz, which repeatedly promised to block any EU-level sanctions against Poland in the Council. The article analyses these agents’ behaviour as an instance of transnational complicity and passes a tentative judgment as to which of the two cases is normatively more problematic. The analysis has implications for possible countervailing responses to democratic backsliding within EU member states.