Party views on democratic backsliding and differentiated integration

Bellamy, Richard, Kröger, Sandra and Lorimer, Marta ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9214-3898 2023. Party views on democratic backsliding and differentiated integration. East European Politics and Societies 37 (2) , pp. 563-583. 10.1177/08883254221096168

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Abstract

Both political parties and differentiated integration (DI) play an ambivalent role in regard to democratic backsliding. Parties’ positioning towards democratic backsliding has not always been straightforward, and DI has been seen as facilitating it. We analyse whether party actors view democratic backsliding as a problematic issue for the EU, if they think DI facilitates it, and how they consider the EU should respond to it. Drawing on thirty-five interviews and a survey of forty-two party actors in seven member states, we show that many do view backsliding as problematic. Moreover, around half worried that DI could facilitate backsliding, though others did not link the two. Finally, almost all considered it legitimate for the EU to address democratic backsliding. Although centre-of-left actors are most likely to worry about democratic backsliding and favour EU intervention, actors across the political spectrum are sceptical about accepting DI in matters pertaining to Article 2.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Cardiff Law & Politics
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	0888-3254
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	13 November 2025
Last Modified:	13 Nov 2025 15:01
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182263

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