EU leverage and democratic backsliding in central and eastern Europe: the case of Romania
EU leverage and democratic backsliding in central and eastern Europe: the case of Romania
This article examines the effectiveness of European Union post-accession leverage to contain democratic backsliding in the Member States by employing as a case study the EU's intervention concerning the impeachment of the Romanian President B˘asescu in July 2012. It is argued that a set of domestic factors, such as political miscalculations, tensions within the ruling coalition and opportunistic actions, facilitated the success of EU material leverage to halt democratic deterioration in Romania. The comparison drawn with the anti-democratic turn in Hungary demonstrates that facilitating domestic conditions, available in the Romanian case but lacking in the Hungarian one, can affect the exercise of EU post-accession leverage to contain democratic regression in the Member States
Democratic backsliding, EU leverage, Romania, Hungary, Post-accession conditionality
593-608
Iusmen, Ingi
696395c1-d60e-4fbd-aa2b-98aeecaa64b2
12 April 2015
Iusmen, Ingi
696395c1-d60e-4fbd-aa2b-98aeecaa64b2
Iusmen, Ingi
(2015)
EU leverage and democratic backsliding in central and eastern Europe: the case of Romania.
JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 53 (3), .
(doi:10.1111/jcms.12193).
Abstract
This article examines the effectiveness of European Union post-accession leverage to contain democratic backsliding in the Member States by employing as a case study the EU's intervention concerning the impeachment of the Romanian President B˘asescu in July 2012. It is argued that a set of domestic factors, such as political miscalculations, tensions within the ruling coalition and opportunistic actions, facilitated the success of EU material leverage to halt democratic deterioration in Romania. The comparison drawn with the anti-democratic turn in Hungary demonstrates that facilitating domestic conditions, available in the Romanian case but lacking in the Hungarian one, can affect the exercise of EU post-accession leverage to contain democratic regression in the Member States
Text
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Accepted/In Press date: 4 June 2014
e-pub ahead of print date: 24 August 2014
Published date: 12 April 2015
Keywords:
Democratic backsliding, EU leverage, Romania, Hungary, Post-accession conditionality
Organisations:
Politics & International Relations
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 379180
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/379180
ISSN: 0021-9886
PURE UUID: ee42ef60-2c91-4949-8973-2107f76e4487
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Date deposited: 24 Jul 2015 08:43
Last modified: 30 Aug 2024 01:46
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