Page 107 [107]
OCR
Democracy and distrust | 105 Anti-democratic, authoritarian tendencies and turns in Eastern Europe; nationalist, far-right, and xenophobic trends in the west and the north of the continent; and left-wing activism and strong movement politics in the south the buzzword of populism can be applied to each of these political dynamics. The second part of this chapter summarises the European perceptions of democracy in the 2010s and the rise of populism as the most relevant political trend of the past decade. The third part gives an insight into the academic debate about these trends, including their origins in the concept and practice of liberal democracy. We are obviously not in a position to deliver country-by-country analyses here. Instead, I make an attempt to explain why and how these turmoils are logical and unavoidable consequences of liberal democracy, without necessarily offering solutions. The ongoing troubles of democracy cannot be cured by technocratic policy-based or constitutional reforms. In fact, in the concluding part of this chapter, I try to contribute to the academic and public debate about the future of democracy in Europe through promoting an alternative conceptual approach as food for thought. THE STATE OF DEMOCRACY Europe is neither unique nor different compared to other parts of the world. Our continent fits into the global trends of dissatisfaction with democracy. The 2010s can be seen as the decade of democratic backsliding and democratic erosion globally. While the first hardly characterises Europe (with the exceptions of some Central and Eastern European countries, such as Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, or Serbia), the erosion of democratic values is present almost everywhere across Europe. In contrast to the flourishing literature of democratic transition and consolidation in the 1980s and the 1990s, the past decade produced hundreds and thousands of analyses, books, and articles about de-democratisation, illiberal trends, the rise of populism, and the so-called fourth wave of autocratisation. Populism, polarisation, and the anti-democratic far-right represent a serious challenge to liberal democracy. But the past decade also shows that the prospects of democratic politics are not as dark as they look at first sight. Dissatisfaction with the functioning of democracy does not only lead to the rise of the far-right and anti-democratic movements, but also contributes to reinvigorating civic participation and social movements. What is important to see is that the current attacks against liberal democracy are not necessarily aimed at destroying, but rather at rethinking and reforming it. Furthermore, as surveys show, criticism of the practice does not mean that the idea itself has failed.
