Party Views on Democratic Backsliding and Differentiated Integration

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how political party actors conceive of the EU and differentiated integration's (DI) role in matters of democratic backsliding, and what factors motivate their views. It complements interview materials with a survey of 42 party actors to analyse whether they perceive democratic backsliding to be a problematic issue. It confirms if party actors consider DI responsible for it and determines how they think the EU should respond to democratic backsliding. The chapter starts by identifying the party political factors that have stood in the way of EU intervention and discusses how they may shape political party actors' views concerning the relation between the EU, DI, and democratic backsliding. Following recent developments in Hungary and Poland, democratic backsliding has emerged as a key concern in European politics.