210111 VO M1b: Introduction into Political Science (2024S)

Quality and Challenges of Democracy in Europe and beyond

The lecture class explores the common topic of quality and challenges of democracy in Europe and beyond from the vantage point of four different fields ("areas/Bereiche") in political science. We start with the insights in the field of Austrian politics. This field uses concepts and methods from comparative politics and applies it to the Austrian case. Many of the challenges to democracy we are witnessing throughout Europe can also be identified in Austria (nativism, populism, polarization, attacks on liberal democratic institutions, ...), whereas other challenges are somewhat more specific to the Austrian context (political corruption, party patronage, sleazy relations between media and politics). In three lectures, we will engage with these concepts, discuss their relevance for the state of Austrian democracy, and examine research that has dealt with some of these phenomena empirically. The next field is that of "comparative politics/East European Studies". In recent years, Eastern Europe is seen as a region where challenges to democracy have been rampant. In order to locate these challenges, we will first discuss problems with the "democratic transition" after 1989 in Eastern Europe, then engage with the concept and empirical examples of democratic backsliding, and finally offer an alternative understanding of democratic backsliding in the region that is rooted in a political economy perspective. The next three classes of the course will engage with theories to understand citizen support for their political institutions and democratic values and their satisfaction with democracy. We will also investigate empirically myth and reality of the legitimacy crisis looking at trends and variation across countries in Europe and beyond. The fourth and last field is that of Europeanization. It is is traditionally concerned with changes to national governance practices by shifting governmental power and authority upward to the EU and the way this relates core ideas about democracy. In its external dimension, Europeanization explores the projection of the EU's substantive liberal democratic norms, values, and governance practices to its external environment. Here, particular attention will be given to ways in which domestic and external challenges to democracy in the EU relate to each other.