Responding to Democratic Backsliding in Europe

Abstract

Over the last four or five years, discussions over what the EU should do about member states backsliding on core democratic and rule of law commitments have taken an increasingly urgent tone (Bárd 2018; Pech et al. 2016; Pech & Scheppele 2017; Oliver & Stefanelli 2016). The tenor of this debate has, thus far, been tuned to public law (e.g. Kochenov 2015; Kochenov & Pech 2016) and comparative politics (Kelemen 2017, 2019; Kovács & Scheppele 2018). While informed by normative presuppositions, these are rarely spelled out or systematically defended. Prescribing particular policy responses by the EU to democratic backsliding in Europe is however unavoidably normative. As such, there is an important role for normative-theoretical reflection on the legitimate scope and authority of EU activity in this domain. Given that ‘ought implies can’, it seems however that this reflection must also be grounded in the institutional and political realities of the EU. Ideal-theoretical political philosophy would not be enough. A combined approach thus seems warranted, sensitive to both empirical and normative theory. To stimulate such reflections, this panel therefore addresses the question of how the EU ought to respond to democratic backsliding from a variety of approaches.

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