Från konsolidering till tillbakagång : En jämförande studie om demokratisk tillbakagång

Sammanfattning: This thesis investigates the reasons behind democratic backsliding by looking at the past 15 years of democratic development in Poland and Hungary, two backsliding countries, and comparing it with Czech Republic, a country that has not faced severe democratic backsliding. Previous research has pointed to many different possible reasons for backsliding but there is no agreement on theoretical explanations, especially not for backsliding in countries that were previously perceived as having consolidated democracy. This study uses Linz and Stepans five arenas of consolidated democracy and compares Poland, Hungary, and Czech Republic through a most similar systems design in order to identify the arenas that can explain the democratic backsliding. In the second part of the analysis, these identified arenas -  civil society and rule of law - are more closely investigated over the 15-year time span in order to find what happened in Poland and Hungary and how it differs from what happened in Czech Republic. The study concludes that it is the combination of structurally insufficient democratic institutions and agents willing to abuse these structural deficits that lead to democratic backsliding. Further research is encouraged to identify other important arenas and include more countries in the comparison in order to strengthen any findings.