Holzer Jan - Challenges to democracies in East Central Europe

Democratic development in Central and Eastern Europe is not a finished project, nor is its progress immune to internal and external threats. The current social, economic, ethnic and political situation within the region presents new dangers. This text identifies and analyses challenges to current East Central European democracies in terms of potential deconsolidation of democracy reflected in the changes in the institutional and procedural framework (polity), and in the choice of instruments and strategies in the policy area. Specifically examining the regimes of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, these challenges include political extremism and violence, corruption, ethnic and religious conflicts. Presenting original East Central European data and utilising the concept of consolidation of democracy from von Beyme and Merkels concept, the book demonstrates that these challenges are as much influenced by imported phenomena, such as immigration, organised crime, and other potential systemic undemocratic volatilities, as the domestic situation.

This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of East European politics, post-Soviet politics, EU Studies, security and strategic studies, international relations, area studies, modern history and sociology.

Jan Holzer is Political Scientist, Professor in the Department of Political Science and Principal Researcher in the International Institute for Political Science, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. He is also the Editor of the Central European Political Studies journal.

Miroslav Mare is Political Scientist, Professor in the Department of Political Science and Principal Researcher in the International Institute for Political Science, Masaryk University, Czech Republic.

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127Challenges to Democracies in East Central Europe

Edited by Jan Holzer and Miroslav Mare

Edited by
Jan Holzer and
Miroslav Mare

First published 2016

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Holzer, Jan, editor. | Mare, Miroslav, editor.

Title: Challenges to democracies in East Central Europe / edited by Jan Holzer and Miroslav Mare.

Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. | Series: Routledge advances in European politics ; 127 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015047639 | ISBN 9781138655966 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315622194 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: DemocracyEurope, Eastern. | DemocratizationEurope, Eastern. | Europe, EasternPolitics and government1989

Classification: LCC JN96.A58 C489 2016 | DDC 320.9437dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047639

ISBN: 978-1-138-65596-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-62219-4 (ebk)

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PAVEL DUFEK, JAN HOLZER AND MIROSLAV MARE

PAVEL DUFEK AND JAN HOLZER

VLASTIMIL HAVLK

PETRA VEJVODOV

PETR KUPKA, MIROSLAV MARE AND MICHAL MOCHAK

ANETA PINKOV

MICHAL MOCHAK

ANDREW ROBERTS

Dr Pavel Dufek is Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. He specialises in the following areas: theories of justice; concepts in political philosophy; philosophy of human rights; methodological and meta-theoretical issues in normative political theory; political theory of the European Union and democratic and democratization theory. He has taught on related courses, such as: Political Ideologies; Twentieth Century Political Philosophy; Concepts in Political Philosophy; Global Justice: Contemporary Debates; and Contemporary Theories of Justice: Levels, Concepts and Problems. He is a member of the European Consortium for Political Research and the Czech Political Science Association. He is the Associate Editor of the Central European Political Studies Review.

Dr Vlastimil Havlk is Research Fellow at the International Institute of Political Science, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University (FSS MU), and Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, FSS MU, Czech Republic. His research interests and also teaching include populism, Czech Republics party politics and Europeanization. He is also the managing editor of the Czech Journal of Political Science.

Jan Holzer is Political Scientist, Professor in the Department of Political Science and Principal Researcher in the International Institute for Political Science, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. He is also the Editor of the Central European Political Studies journal and Member of the Czech Political Science Association, Polish Political Science Association, International Association of Political Science (RC 13: Democratization in Comparative Perspective). His research interests include the following areas: Politics in East European Countries and former Soviet Republics (especially in Russia), Theory of Undemocratic and Hybrid Regimes and Theory of Democratization.

Petr Kupka is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. He specialises in organised crime, extremism, and security and strategic policy. He also lectures on those topics. Mr Kupka is a local expert and worked on a number of projects with the Center for the Study of Democracy (Bulgaria). He is a member of the Czech Criminological Society and the ECPR Standing Group on Organised Crime.