Backsliding in the Post-Communist Space. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis

How can we account for democratic backsliding in the post-communist space in the second and third decade after democratization? Interestingly, backsliding concerns not only the usual ‘laggards’ of the integration process, but also early democratic frontrunners. We argue that backsliding was not a direct result of accession to the EU and the disappearance of the membership incentive. Rather, it happened over time and under specific domestic constellations. The paper seeks to go beyond the existing focus on (comparative) case studies and includes all post-communist countries that established a minimum degree of political competition by the end of the first post-communist decade. We consider different features of party politics, achieved levels of democratization, veto players, economic development, corruption, strength of civil society, and international leverage as important explanatory factors. Our qualitative comparative analysis shows that there is no single pathway to democratic backsliding in the post-communist space and that different constellations of conditions explain why some states keep their levels of democracy while others fail.