Different Means to similar Ends? Assessing the Impact of populist Rule on democratic Regimes in Europe

The impact of populist governments on democracy is of growing interest to researchers. Extreme cases like Hungary and Poland suggest that populism in power transforms democracy into a competitive authoritarian system. However, the general extent to which populists affect the quality of democracy or even change the regime itself remains disputed (Art 2020). Seizing the concept of embedded democracy (Merkel 2004) and taking into account both legalistic and informal means, this paper offers a comparative assessment of the impact of populism on each partial regime of democracy. In doing so, we are able to, first, understand the means by which populists attempt to gain and solidify their power, level checks and balances and restrict constitutional guarantees of pluralism. This provides the basis to identify commonalities and differences among populist governments, offering an in-depth understanding of distinct impacts on democratic regimes. The analysis will compare six countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.