Issue published: 31 March 2022

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The Orbán regime as the “perfect autocracy”: The emergence of the “zombie democracy” in Hungary

Attila Ágh, p. 1–25

Abstract: All ECE countries have covered the same historical trajectory of ‘the third‑generation autocracy’, but Hungary has been reaching its ‘perfection’, since the two‑thirds, constitutional supermajority in the Hungarian case has allowed for the Orbán regime to complete this ‘reverse wave’ in all fields of society and turning it into a zombie democracy. The conceptual frame of this paper is that the decline of democracy and the turn to autocratisation can be presented in ECE in the three big stages of the Easy Dream, Chaotic Democracy and Neoliberal Autocracy in the three corresponding decades.The paper concentrates on the third stage in its three shorter periods taking 3–4 years as the De‑Democratisation, Autocratisation and De‑Europeanisation.The Hungarian case has been presented in this paper in a comparative ECE view as its worst‑case scenario that also sheds light on the parallel developments in the fellow ECE countries.

Keywords: autocratisation and De‑Europeanisation, zombie democracy and zombie EU membership in Hungary

Serious about Integration or Political Posturing? Political Elites and their Impact on Half‑hearted Europeanisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Romana Burianová and Vít Hloušek, p. 27–51

Abstract: This paper deals with the sluggish Europeanisation efforts of the current political elites of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A typical explanation for the lack of progress would be the complex structure of consociational democracy of the specific Bosnian confederation. The authors, however, claim that the structural obstacles could have been bypassed given the real will of political elites of all three nations to cooperate.The authors examine the role of the structure of the peculiar political system in comparison with the influence of the agency of Bosnian elites on the integration process.The empirical analysis focuses on the situation after the general elections in 2018. The authors discuss the contrast between the official declarations of consistent support for a European future with the real political performance of the various Bosnian party elites. These elites often misuse the institutional settings of the political system to block reforms. They also prefer the politics of obstruction to cement their leading positions within their constituent nations. More than a quarter century after the Dayton Peace Treaty and adoption of the Constitution, the lack of genuine intrinsic motivation to pursue Europeanisation has remained the main reason for the reluctant rapprochement of Bosnia to the European Union.

Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Europeanisation, political elites, political culture, integration process, consociational democracy

Constructing the Discourse on the Eurozone Crisis in the Czech Republic: Presidents Václav Klaus and Miloš Zeman Compared

Dan Marek and Monika Brusenbauch Meislová, p. 53–77

Abstract: The article investigates the discourse of two Czech presidents, Václav Klaus (2003–2013) and Miloš Zeman (2013–incumbent), vis‑à-vis the salient issue of the Eurozone crisis. Having adopted the general orientation of the discourse historical approach to discourse analysis, and working with a corpus of data on Klaus’ and Zeman’s public utterances on the Eurozone crisis in the 2010–2018 period, the central research question that the article addresses is: How was the Eurozone crisis discursively constructed in the presidential rhetoric of Václav Klaus and Miloš Zeman? Building on the crisis literature, the article answers the question by exploring the presidential discourse within three persuasive narratives of the crisis causes, resolution and consequences.

Keywords: Eurozone crisis, Czech Republic, president, Václav Klaus, Miloš Zeman, discourse analysis

From Deliberation to Pure Mobilization? The Case of National Consultations in Hungary

Kálmán Pócza and Dániel Oross, p. 79–109

Abstract: National or supranational consultations on general policy questions are unusual phenomena. Nevertheless, they seem to play an important role in the political life of the community either because they might be considered as rudimentary forms of deliberative practices or because they are important strategic tools in the hands of political actors. Given this salience of consultations from both normative‑deliberative and descriptive‑strategic perspectives, it is surprising that academic analyses of national consultations are scarce. This paper tries to fill this gap in the literature by focusing onone of the most well‑known examples of nation‑wide consultations, the series of national consultations in Hungary. It aims to present why national consultations gradually lost their deliberative character and how they have been transformed into a strategic instrument for mobilising supporters.

Keywords: deliberative democracy, direct democracy, populism, legitimacy, national consultation

Could a Referendum Change the Local Party System? Discussion of the Referendum’s Consequences in the Context of Cleavages

Barbora Šenkýřová and Stanislav Balík, p. 111–127

Abstract: The local policy is sometimes degraded by this opinion: in the small village, there is no policy, self‑government is based on the personal character without the political context, it is mainly oriented on the technical side of the government. However, different researches confirm that despite this claim local policy contains political (and ideological) fights. These researches focus on different topics and different attitudes in cleavages or conflict study. However, only a few research types mentioned the importance of local civic activism in connection with the local policy trends. It is interesting because civic activism, values and attitudes are the main points in the cleavage topic. In this research, we will discuss the term cleavage (concept by Deegan‑Krause) in thecontext of four Czech municipalities which have experience with civic activism – the referendum. In our research, we will focus on four municipalities, on which we will present the application of the Deegan‑Krausemodel. Based on the application, we will discuss if civic activism in the form of a referendum could lead to changes in the local party system.

Keywords: local party system, referendum, concept of cleavages, civic activism, local‑level politics

The European Union’s Transformative Power in the Countries of the Eastern Partnership

Tetiana Sydoruk, Viktor Pavliuk and Iryna Tymeichuk, p. 129–149

Abstract: The article examines the Eastern Partnership (EaP) as the initiative of the European Union (EU) through the prism of the constructivist concepts of soft power, normative power and transformative power. The research focuses on the assessment of the EU’s transformative strength in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus, based on the analysis of declared EU policy goals and instruments and the real results of political reforms in partner countries. The results of the study show that the EaP has little transformative impact and needs further revision. The analysis of empirical indicators in the field of political transformation of the EaP countries shows that since its inception, as well as after the signing of Association Agreements with three countries and the renewal of the European Neighborhood Policy in 2015, no radical changes have been made, and the EU’s influence on the course of reforms has been insignificant. Institutional and geopolitical constraints and challenges that complicate the EU’s ability to influence its eastern neighbours are addressed. The article analyses prospects for strengthening the effectiveness of the EaP in the context of its latest update after 2020.

Keywords: eastern partnership, normative power, transformative power, eastern neighbours, transformation

How to Follow and Study Through the Sites and Situations of Expert Knowledge Diffusion in International Politics: Research Challenges and Methodological Responses

Šárka Waisová, p. 151–174

Abstract: The central aim of this article is to consider tools and methods for studying expert knowledge (EK) diffusion in international politics. What we need are methodological devices to enable research of the object in motion and to study small or multiple sites, and even global scales in time, as well as the object of inquiry at different levels of analysis. Based on the marriage of network analysis and mobility research this article discusses the research potential of several methodological tools: bibliometrics, QHA, SNA techniques, topology, topography and biography. I conclude that despite these methods being imperfect, they 1) make possible the bridging of traditional IR dilemmas, such as the level‑of‑analysis problem, the micro‑macro gap, and the agent‑structure debate, 2) enable to collect and evaluate a much richer class of evidence and contextualization than methods usually used in IR offer, and 3) make possible to be much more ethnographically sensitive than IR research traditionally is.

Keywords: expert knowledge, diffusion, international politics, methods