Jerzy J. Wiatr - New Authoritarianism – Challenges to Democracy in the 21st century

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Jerzy J. Wiatr
From the Editor

Klaus von Beyme
Populism, Right-Wing Extremism and Neo-Nationalism

Adam Przeworski
A Conceptual History of Political Regimes:
Democracy, Dictatorship, and Authoritarianism

Zygmunt Bauman
Some of the Foremost Challenges to the Status Quo

Janusz Reykowski
The Massive Exchange of Elites as a Mean of Formation of the Authoritarian Regime

Ilter Turan
The Rise of Populist Electoral Authoritarian in Turkey: a Case of Culturally Rooted Recidivism

Nataliya Velikaya
Opposition as a Mirage of Political Field in Russia

Hans-Georg Heinrich
From Horthy to Orbn: Neo-Authoritarianism in Hungary

Peter Anyang Nyongo
Authoritarianism with the Electoral face in Africa

Jerzy Jaskiernia
Authoritarian Tendencies in the Polish Political System

Jerzy J. Wiatr
New and Old Authoritarianism in a Comparative Perspective

The present volume has been based on a special issue of the Polish journal Studia Socjologiczno-Polityczne. Seria Nowa (Sociological-Political Studies. New Series) published by the Institute of Sociology of the University of Warsaw. The issue on neo-authoritarianism (no.2, 2017) published under my editorship contained seven papers by Polish and foreign authors. For the present volume three more chapters were added, contributed by Klaus von Beyme, Hans-Georg Heinrich and Nataliya Velikaya.

The journal has a long and complicated history. It was launched in 1958 by Julian Hochfeld (19111966), formerly one of the leaders and theoreticians of the Polish Socialist Party and since 1957 head of the political sociology chair at the University of Warsaw. Two of the contributors to this volume (Zygmunt Bauman and myself) were Hochfelds students and associates. Baumans contribution to the issue on new authoritarianism was one of his last writings, completed just a few weeks before his deaths (in January 2017).

The journal was the only periodical devoted to political sociology in the then socialist states and one of the very few in the world. Because of the political views of its founder and his associates, the journal was considered one of the most important platforms of the open Marxism current in the then socialist states. In 1968, at the peak of anti-Semitic and anti-liberal campaign, the Ministry of Higher Education decided to close the journal. It was as late as 2014 that the journal has been revived due to the initiative of the present head of the political sociology chair Professor Jacek Raciborski, who is its editor-in- chief. The link between the new journal and its predecessor is demonstrated by the fact that the Editorial Council have been chaired by co-editors of the old journal: Zygmunt Bauman and (after his passing away) by myself.

The theme of this volume is new authoritarianism. It refers to the emergence of hybrid regimes which combine electorally expressed will of the people with the centralization of state power in the hands of the supreme leader and/or in the hands of the ruling oligarchy and with the destruction of the rule of law, the cornerstone of which are independent courts. Such systems have been called by various names, like controlled democracy (Peter Anyang Nyongo), delegative democracy (Guillermo ODonnell), electoral authoritarianism (Ilter Turan), illiberal democracy (Fareed Zakaria). In this issue we have opted for the term new authoritarianism to underline both the continuity with the older forms of [8] authoritarianism and the novelty of the current phenomenon, which unlike old authoritarianism is not based on a naked power but successfully seeks public support expressed in contested elections.

In the present century several states have been moving in the direction of new authoritarianism. They belong to the large category of countries which had departed from dictatorial regimes in not too distant past. There are, however, authoritarian tendencies in old democracies, as manifested in several recent elections in Europe and America.

This does not mean that new authoritarianism represents the future of mankind. There are still strong anti-authoritarian forces, as demonstrated by the defeats suffered in recent elections by populist and authoritarian parties in several European states. But, as Klaus von Beyme and Zygmunt Bauman demonstrated, the challenge of neo-authoritarian populist radicalism in old democracies should not be underestimated.

Social sciences cannot be value-free, since as Max Weber has taught us scholars are members of the society and have their values, which influence the way in which they select and interpret phenomena under study. Contributors to this issue make no attempt to hide their allegiance to the basic values of liberal democracy. Hopefully, this issue proves that such values do not constitute an obstacle to a fully objective scientific analysis.

I should like to express my gratitude to my German publisher Barbara Budrich for her constant interest in and support for my research and for the initiative to publish this volume, as well as to Jacek Raciborski and Andrzej Chrzanowski, respectively editor-in-chief and publisher of Studia Socjologiczno-Polityczne for their support and help.

Populism needs to be differentiated from two other movements:

the right-wing populism of Conservatism;

the populism of right-wing extremism.