The Nation Conquering the State: Illiberal Democracy in Post-Communist Europe

• In Event: Perspectives on the Revolutions of 1989: Hopes, Disappointments, Legacies

Abstract

The rebirth of far-right in the aftermath of the global financial crisis testifies to the return of nationalism in Europe. These effects have been most noticeable in East-Central Europe, where the so-called “Visegrád group” has combined elections and market economics with a rejection of individual human rights and protections for minorities. This new “axis of illiberalism” has led a revolt against ideas of tolerance, multiculturalism and the rule of law.

Building on Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), I argue that the rise of illiberal democracy in post-communist Europe points to a continuing tension within the concept of the nation-state. Whereas the first term emphasizes ethnic belonging, the latter focuses on the rule of law, which ought to apply equally to all regardless of nationality. Thirty years after the fall of communism, the nation has conquered the state in East-Central Europe. I trace these problems back to the betrayal of the internationalist roots of socialism by the communist parties of the Eastern bloc in the first half of the twentieth century, arguing that by embracing both nationalism and the state form the communist movement lost much of its revolutionary potential.

The development of illiberal democracy in post-communist Europe at the start of the twenty-first century holds lessons for the continent as a whole. Although popular sovereignty and the will of the people expressed through democratic elections is important, it is only one side of the democratic coin. The other is the protection of the individual and group rights that give the vote its legitimacy. A key insight of the post-war European order is that the protection of individual human and group rights must be grounded beyond the nation state. The betrayed hopes of 1989 in post-communist Europe demonstrate that this project remains unfinished.

Author

• Peter J. Verovšek, University of Sheffield