Holzer, Jan and Mareš, Miroslav (eds) Challenges to Democracies in East Central Europe (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 587 to subversive cultural memory evident in Andrus Kivirähk’s work, with Wulf’s life-story interviews that give us insights into these historians’ minds. Those readers who are curious about the contentious memory politics of contemporary Estonia should not miss this book. UCL SSEES and Johan Skytte Institute of Paris Pin-Yu Chen Political Science, University of Tartu Holzer, Jan and Mareš, Miroslav (eds). Challenges to Democracies in East Central Europe. Routledge Advances in European Politics, 127. Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2016. x + 145 pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliographies. Index. £90.00. It has become commonplace to observe that democracy in East Central Europe (ECE) is not in rude health. However, despite a plethora of media and think tank commentary on ‘democratic backsliding’ and ‘illiberal democracy’ in the region and a concomitant renewal of academic interest in ‘de-democratization’, ‘de-consolidation’ and ‘democratic regression’, there is little agreement on the nature of ECE democratic malaise — and still less on its causes. This new edited collection by a team of researchers based at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic seeks to address some of these issues. Its key theme, outlined in the editors’ introductory essay, is that the debate on threats to democracy in ECE needs to shift focus from political and constitutional systems to more socially rooted phenomena such as corruption, organized crime, extremism and political populism. While the weakness and subversion of formal institutions are the most obvious ‘backsliding’ symptoms, we need look beyond them to understand how and why this is so. Moreover, as Pavel Dufek and Jan Holzer note in their opening chapter, it is unclear whether ECE is undergoing ‘deconsolidation’ or whether the region’s apparently successful democratic consolidation was always illusory. Tellingly, they argue, ECE publics’ perceptions of democracy — and assessments of its prospects among intellectuals and academics from the region — were always more pessimistic than those of West European and North American academia. The collection then explores these issues through a series of thematic chapters surveying research on populism, extremism, organized crime, corruption, and — perhaps slightly incongruously — the influence of external actors on ECE. The geographical focus is on the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Populist parties, taking a variety of forms, have had an important electoral impact in ECE. However, Vlastimil Havlík argues, even when ideologically SEER, 95, 3, JULY 2017 588 radical, they have posed only an indirect threat, tending to undermine the quality of democratic representation, rather than the democratic regime itself. Surges in support for populist parties can lead to de-stabilizing cycles of protest voting, especially where the initial rise of populist outsiders pushes established parties towards ‘enforced convergence’. Extremist groups (predominantly of the neo-Nazi right) which overtly and aggressively oppose the basic democratic values of pluralism and human rights, by contrast, are self-evidently a threat. However, Petra Vejvodová argues, their existence on some scale is inevitable in any democracy. The key issue, she suggests, is whether (as in most ECE states) they should be subject to a constitutional doctrine of ‘militant democracy’ allowing the early proscription of extremist organizations and the legal sanctioning of hate speech. In practice, she argues — particularly given the infiltration of extreme views into the supposed mainstream — the development of a civic-minded, critical citizenry would be a surer bulwark for democracy. Organized crime groups have established a solid presence in ECE, benefiting both from the region’s geographical location — which makes it a convenient transit route and entrepôt for global criminal networks — and the opportunities opened up by the post-Communist market economy. However, the political impact of organized crime in ECE, Petr Kupka, Miroslav Mareš and Michal Mochťak conclude, has so far been limited and latent. Organized criminal groups maintain a parasitic relationship with normal business and social activities, but have been unable to effect far-reaching state capture. Their greatest threat thus lies in their potential to feed ‘normal’ corrupt relationships between business and politics. Such relationships, as Aneta Pinková notes in her chapter on corruption, although difficult to measure empirically, seem persistent across the region. As they are most concentrated in areas such as public procurement, they are also highly...