Earlier this year I published my second paper. It is about the role of Christian Democracy on European integration (why!? long story… but for another time).
Over the past two decades, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have gone from being a testament to the ‘triumph’ of liberal democracy to constituting prominent cases of democratic backsliding. Various explanations have been advanced for this, such as populism, the weakness of civil society, the corruption of elites, and the lingering effects of communism. What is often forgotten is the fact that the East European countries have met the economic criteria and demands of the EU to a greater extent than some Western core countries. The role of Christian democracy in European integration must be acknowledged as it provided the tools to make the process smoother, but it has also enabled democratic backsliding in these countries.
Christian democracy and liberalism share a morphological similarity, as both strive to separate economics from society, and this has resulted in an “authoritarian liberalism” where the economic initiative is free but democracy is restricted. This mindset has been seen in the approval of restrictive rules in Western Europe and the adoption of a Bismarckian social policy in East European countries, with the traditional family at the center of welfare efforts. The repeated focus on the “dysfunctionality” of democracy in the East has exaggerated the democratic health of the West and has exacerbated the rhetoric of a divide between “old” and “new” Europe.