European Integration, Democratic Consolidation, and Democratic Regression in CEE: An Institutional Assessment

Abstract:

The European integration of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was supposed to bring democratic consolidation in the region. Post-accession, however, we have been witnessing democratic regression in a number of cases. Thus, an interesting question has risen as a result of this puzzling outcome. This paper attempts to provide an institutional argument for the post-accession divergent patterns of CEE by tying post-accession performance to political competition during the pre-accession process. Using the effective number of parliamentary parties, this article argues that the pre-accession process of the Eastern enlargement was more conducive to democratic consolidation under those democracies with a higher number of effective parties. Additionally, the paper shows that more fragmented party systems exhibited higher levels of party-based euroskepticism. The dual nature of the argument suggests that the more fragmented and euroskeptic a party system during the pre-accession process, the higher the likelihood of democratic consolidation in the post-accession period.