Contesting the EU, contesting democracy and rule of law in Europe: conceptual suggestions for future research

Abstract

In ECE countries, democratisation and Europeanisation seemed to exist in a mutually reinforcing relationship and both concepts provided the main analytical lenses for studying these states. In the light of recent illiberal and anti-EU politics, two different concepts have started to receive increasing scholarly attention, namely the concepts of de-Europeanisation and autocratisation. Their exact meaning, however, remains unclear and the causal link between these specific processes and the rule of law has largely remained understudied. Against this backdrop, this chapter first summarises the state-of-the-art research on autocratisation and de-Europeanisation, and then examines the interaction and causal link between these two phenomena in times of declining democracies in Europe and rule of law problems.