Populism in Power and Democracy: Democratic Decay and Resilience in the Czech Republic (2013-2020)

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68378025%3A_____%2F20%3A00541380" target="_blank" >RIV/68378025:_____/20:00541380 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/3420" target="_blank" >https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/3420</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/pag.v8i4.3420" target="_blank" >10.17645/pag.v8i4.3420</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Populism in Power and Democracy: Democratic Decay and Resilience in the Czech Republic (2013-2020)

Original language description

Populism and technocracy reject vertical accountability and horizontal accountability. Populism and technocracy can combine to form 'technocratic populism.' The study assesses the extent to which democratic decay can be traced to the actions of technocratic populists as opposed to institutional factors, civil society, fragmentation and polarization. The main findings of this article are that technocratic populism has illiberal tendencies expressed best in its efforts at executive aggrandizement (cf. Bermeo, 2016). Without an effective bulwark against democratic erosion (cf. Bernhard, 2015), technocratic populism tends to undermine electoral competition (vertical accountability), judiciary independence, legislative oversight (horizontal accountability), and freedom of the press (diagonal accountability). The most effective checks on technocratic populist in power, this study finds, are the courts, free media, and civil society. This article highlights the mechanisms of democratic decay and democratic resilience beyond electoral politics. It indicates that a combination of institutional veto points and civil society agency is necessary to prevent democratic erosion (cf. Weyland, 2020). While active civil society can prevent democratic erosion, it cannot reverse it. Ultimately, the future of liberal democracy depends on the people's willingness to defend it in the streets AND at the ballot box.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50601 - Political science

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Politics and Governance

ISSN

2183-2463

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

8

Issue of the periodical within the volume

4

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

473-484

UT code for WoS article

000605673200002

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85099381536