Economy and Democracy in Slovakia during the Crisis: From a Laggard to the EU Core

Abstract

This article demonstrates that the EU’s multiple economic crises have not shifted the main political trajectories in Slovakia. Despite a severe impact on the labor market, the crises themselves have neither triggered strong anti-EU sentiments nor led to an upsurge of social unrest or anti-EU populist politics. We argue that differentiated Europeanization and instrumental socialization based solely on strategic calculation, together with the elites’ narrow focus on fiscal governance, have recently prompted anti-EU attitudes, undermined citizens’ trust, and further weakened the quality of democracy. In sum, the Slovak case suggests that it is the inadequate elite response to the crisis, rather than the economic crisis itself, that has decreased democratic legitimation (Habermas 1975).