Join Columbia University's Harriman Institute for a talk with Laszlo Bruszt on the European Union's role in the growth of illiberal regimes in Central and Eastern Europe.

The EU, until lately, was seen as the key promoter of liberal democracy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE); nowadays it is pictured as a helpless outsider with weak powers to halt processes of de-democratization in the region. Bruszt takes issue with the presentation of the EU as the passive external observer of democratic backsliding, and argues that the integration strategy of the EU plays an active role in the growth of illiberal regimes in CEE countries. The EU integration strategy imposes uniform rules on national economies burdened with dramatically different problems of economic development without leaving much room for the supranational politicization of negative developmental consequences. Such governance of economic integration makes the defense of sovereignty and the exclusionary representation of national interests the “trump card” in domestic politics. In such settings, illiberal elites in CEE countries with fragile party systems can extend the strategy of “defending sovereignty from Brussels” to a war against the internal enemies of national interests.

Speaker

Laszlo Bruszt, professor of sociology, Central European University, Budapest