Suchergebnisse

This report outlines an analytical framework through which constraints imposed by financial markets on decision-making in the European Union (EU) both at the national and at the EU level can be understood in the context of the latest economic and financial crisis. The report departs from the notion of 'political citizenship' as an analytical device for understanding how financial market constraints are reflected in political decisions and discusses in how far such constraints restrict or are compatible with European political citizenship rights. This aspect remains an under-studied element of EU decision-making. The report concludes that the question of in how far financial markets constrain political decision-making cannot be treated separately from understanding how financial market developments are translated into specific policy options by executive and legislative decision-makers in the context of the decentralised and multi-level economic governance architecture of the euro area. In this context a small transnational elite group of senior civil servants and central bank officials plays a particular role as they interpret financial market developments and map out policy options for elected executive and legislative decision-makers. This report is related to the bEUcitizenship report 'Democratic parliamentary control in times of crisis' which covers a comparative case study on four different countries which is built upon the framework advanced in this report.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Information -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- About the Author -- Preface -- Introduction -- A Comprehensive Study of the Impact of Populism in "The Age of Populism" -- What Is Populism? -- The Multifaceted Impact of Populism as an Ideology -- Case Selection and Methods -- The Structure of the Book -- Notes -- Part I Polity Impact -- 1 Populist Constitutionalism in Hungary After 2010 -- Populist Constitutionalism -- Constitution-making in Hungary in 2011 -- A Rationale for Constitutional Change: the Elite's Constitution Failing to Represent "The Will of the People"? -- The Contents of the Fundamental Law - Identifying "The People", Repoliticizing the Constitution and Deconstructing ... -- Adopting the Fundamental Law - Controlled Popular Sovereignty? -- Entrenching Populist Constitutionalism Through Amendments to the Fundamental Law -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 2 Discriminatory Legalism in Hungary After 2010 -- Discriminatory Legalism and Populism -- An Overview of "Discriminatory Legalism" in Hungary After 2010 -- Legislation Regulating Parliamentary Elections - "The Use of Law" -- Legislation Regulating Civil Society Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations - "The Abuse of Law" -- Legislation Regulating Foreign Higher Education Institutions in Hungary - "The Abuse and Contingent Use of Law" -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 3 Populism and (Liberal) Democracy in Hungary After 2010 -- Populism as (Liberal) Democracy's Immune System Gone Wild? -- The Impact of Populism On Hungarian Democracy After 2010 -- Government Narrative On Democratic Deterioration -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Part II Politics Impact -- 4 Populism, Media and Journalism in Hungary After 2010 -- The Media, Journalism and Populism -- Populism and the Media System in Hungary After 2010.

Although the past decade has shown how populist governments may challenge the EU's budgetary framework, we still lack an understanding of the circumstances under which populists are more likely to mobilize against EU-level decision-making in this field, and what this mobilization may look like. Combining the literature on populism as an ideology and EU decision-making, the article zooms in on the negotiations regarding the general regime of conditionality in EU budgetary politics and argues that economic and political factors have influenced populist mobilization. A qualitative comparison of the nine cases where populist parties feature in the government highlights that only two countries, Poland and Hungary, have actively opposed the introduction of the so-called rule-of-law conditionality. A closer look indicates that a combination of Euroscepticism, European Parliamentary affiliation, membership in the European Public Prosecutor's Office, and the political power that populist parties possess at home, along with key macroeconomic indicators, have influenced populists in government to mobilize against the conditionality mechanism. In the second part of the analysis, the article showcases the actions of the Hungarian government, highlighting it as a specific example of populist mobilization. Viktor Orbán's government has built a populist narrative around the issue, questioned the norm of the decision-making process, exerted a veto to block the agreement temporarily, and later challenged the regulation in court—in short, it engaged in unpolitics.

This report provides a comparative analysis which tests the analytical framework that was advanced in the bEUcitizen report 'Constraints imposed by financial markets on political choice in the EU' (Deliverable 8.1.), which focused on whether and how the meaningful exercise of European political citizenship has been constrained by financial market developments in the context of the euro crisis. The focus is on Austria, Finland, Ireland and Slovakia, which represent four smaller EU member states witnessing strong politicization around the issue of euro area crisis decision-making, notably the provision of financial assistance. The individual case studies demonstrate how each constituency responded to the challenge financial markets posed to decision-makers and how this and the multi-level and decentralized EU economic governance structure impacted on the meaningful exercise of core political rights. The report concludes that the euro crisis posed no threat to the formal validity of core citizenship rights. However, it is shown in relation to each country setting that the limitation of viable political alternatives in electoral competition, the influential role of executive actors and bureaucratic transnational European elites as well as secrecy practices and in some cases the lack of appropriate accountability structures restrict the meaningful exercise of European political citizenship.

AbstractThe euro crisis has sparked changes in the EU's economic governance framework and a crisis of legitimacy across the union. While the institutional repercussions of the crisis have been studied before, the democratic impact at the national level has received much less attention. This paper aims to fill this gap, focusing on the procedural changes that the EU's new economic governance (NEG) framework has brought to national budgetary decision‐making. Building upon the Varieties of Democracy framework, the paper adds empirical nuance and conceptual clarity to the notion of 'throughput legitimacy' and its components: openness, inclusiveness, transparency and accountability. Detailed case studies of post‐crisis Austria, Italy and Portugal show that the NEG improved access to national budgetary decision‐making and enhanced executive scrutiny, while excessive complexity remains the Achilles' heel of EU fiscal rules. We submit that these procedural changes are too meaningful to be overlooked in post‐crisis debates about EU democracy.