A new specter is roaming the world: illiberalism. The past decade has seen a proliferation of studies on the rise of illiberal tendencies in Europe and around the world. Old disputes have been reopened about the compatibility of democracy and liberalism, the correctness of the term “illiberal democracy”, and the meaning of equality, respect for rights, and the autonomy of powers. This book in the Polidemos series contributes to the broad ongoing debate on these issues from a perspective that includes theoretical-conceptual reflection, empirical analysis, and legal analysis. The six contributions range from an analysis of the new processes of autocratization to the implications that democratic backsliding may have for the future of the European Union to an analysis of the internal situations in some states where the illiberal trend is particularly, but not homogeneously, manifest: Serbia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.
