The alteration of the democratic system in Central Europe has sparked various studies. Since the first “surprises” in elections, two trends of thought have emerged. The first one emphasized the populist discourse and style of leaders and their parties, as instruments of seizing power. Here, the focus was on the core of these speeches, pitting elites against the masses: the elites systematically stigmatized while the masses were valued, characterized as “the sovereign people.” A second line of thought follows the structural attacks on democratic system institutions, examining the shift towards an authoritarian regime while preserving a democratic facade.
The authoritarian power in Central Europe: a genesis According to the Polish-American sociologist Adam Przeworski, in liberal democracies, it is the unkept promises of successive teams that have destroyed faith in democratic solutions, generating a kind of social “rage,” disorderly and ready to invest in miraculous solutions. “People abandoned by the left turned to populists, who positioned themselves as defenders of their interests, combining criticism of elites and the failures of capitalist globalization, rejection of minorities, misogyny, and homophobia, […] while the neoliberal rulers, with their policies, led to economic frustration […].” In his research on medium-sized cities to understand the vote for autocratic solutions and leaders, Maciej Gdula showed that the stereotype linking revolt to low levels of education or belonging to a specific social class was false. The populist narrative actually benefits from a given situation by emphasizing grievances shared by the left-behind due to liberal transformation.
PLAN: – The authoritarian power in Central Europe: a genesis – The centrality of the authoritarian leader – Foreign policy missteps – Scandals with no effect on PiS electorate – The autocratic global project – Judicial system – Elections – Media – Women’s rights – Changes in administration – Blind spot in reflection on “post-Soviet authoritarianism”: their possible decline – The loss of influence of the Church – Reactions from society
Georges Mink, holder of the Chair of European Civilization dedicated to the memory of Professor Bronislaw Geremek at the College of Europe, Natolin Campus, is a distinguished researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of Politics (ISP-CNRS). He has notably published “La Pologne au coeur de l’Europe. De 1914 à nos jours” (Paris, Buchet Chastel, 2015).
