Leiden University Student Repository

King, Joseph (2024)

Contestation and Misrule: Democratic Backsliding in Central Europe

Master thesis | Political Science (MSc)

While examining the efforts of the European Union to halt democratic backsliding two groups of actions have emerged. They can be summarized as efforts concerning legitimacy, where challenges to current Western norms are met, and concerning authority, where power misusage and active degradation to liberal law are met with policy change and increased vigilance. This project compares the two approaches and seeks to determine when backsliding is halted within two case states - Hungary and Romania. Analyzing the past two decades, the thesis project would allow for a greater understanding of whether each approach is worth taking in states in different stages of illiberalism.

Democratic Backsliding

Hungary

Romania

European Union

Author

King, Joseph

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

International Organizations

Supervisors

Agha Bayramov

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en