LIBERALISM'S FAILURE TO DELIVER

• Published in: Journal of democracy Vol. 27; no. 1; p. 35
• Main Author: Krastev, Ivan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 01-01-2016
• Subjects: Crises; Democracy; Democratization; Failure; Habits; Liberalism; Politics; Society; Values; Violence; Bulgaria
• ISSN: 1045-5736; 1086-3214
• DOI: 10.1353/jod.2016.0001

James Dawson and Seán Hanley's thoughtful essay is a major contribution to the study of "backsliding." According to Wikipedia, "backsliding" is "a term used within Christianity to describe a process by which an individual who has converted to Christianity reverts to pre-conversion habits and/or lapses or falls into sin." Falling into illiberalism is the common sin of many newly emerged democracies in East-Central Europe (ECE). Arguing with my October 2007 essay in these pages "Is East-Central Europe Backsliding? The Strange Death of the Liberal Consensus," Dawson and Hanley insist that the illiberal turn in the region is a "side-effect of the elite-focused, incentive-driven reform processes overseen by the EU," which have left citizens "unexposed to the philosophical rationale for liberal-democratic institutions." In the authors' view, it was an illusion to think that the region had achieved democratic consolidation, and the current process of backsliding is deeply rooted in the absence of a more value-based democratic politics. For them, it is the opportunism of the liberal elites rather than the radicalism of the populists that bears most of the blame for the erosion of liberal democracy in the region. What makes their analysis particularly valuable is that they focus not just on Viktor Orbán's Hungary, but on the region as a whole.