Democratic Backsliding and the Limits to Differentiated Integration

Abstract

This chapter highlights the acceptance of pluralism and a commitment to the core components of any constitutional democracy. It covers free and fair elections, equal civil and political rights, and judicial independence and the rule of law. It also analyses demoicratic arguments for differentiated integration (DI), which cannot be legitimately recruited in support of democratic backsliding as the current governments of Hungary and Poland have attempted to do. The chapter talks about how member states become liable to measures termed as ‘value’ DI, whereby they can be temporarily excluded from certain decision-making processes and substantive policies until such time as they embrace and institutionalize democratic norms. It points out that a constitutional pluralist approach can offer a theoretically coherent rationale for countering democratic backsliding.