[Séminaire d'axe] Majoritarian-Nationalist Persuasion, Transition Legacies, and Support for Illiberalism in Europe

Democratic backsliding results from the actions of democratically elected governments. This points to a puzzle: How do illiberal elites generate electoral support, even as they undermine the very institutions that sustain democracy? This paper argues that illiberal elites generate support by re-defining, rather than openly attacking the democratic ideal, and are therefore the more successful, the more majoritarian and nationalist their electoral appeals. Nationalism prioritizes the self-determination of the nation over the self-determination of free and equal individuals. Replacing a liberal–constitutional with a majoritarian idea of democracy can serve to legitimize illiberal reforms in the eyes of voters. However, we do not expect this strategy to resonate equally well across Europe: where democratic transitions once overcame ultra-nationalist fascism, voters likely remained sceptical of nationalism. By contrast, where democratization was once framed as a national freedom fight against communism, nationalism should more easily attract support today. The empirical analysis tests these expectations with data from the V-Dem and MARPOR projects, regressing the electoral success of illiberal parties on the content of their electoral platforms for all European democracies between 1992 and 2019.

Speaker: 

Christina Zuber, U Konstanz & EUI Florence

Christina Zuber is a Professor of German Politics at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz. With a background in comparative politics, she focuses on party politics, migration, integration and citizenship, and democratic theory. A central question connecting most of her research projects is how diverse cultural, ethnic, and national identities affect the functioning of democracy. 
Her current projects examine nationalist and ethnic mobilization in contemporary and historical European democracies, as well as instances of electoral competition where parties not only promise policy but also appeal to voters’ social identities. 
Christina Zuber’s recent book, Ideational Legacies (OUP, 2022), introduces a novel theory of ideational policy stabilization, contributing to debates on the causal power of ideas in comparative public policy. In her empirical research, she traces how historical legacies of industrialization continue to shape contemporary migration politics in Catalonia and South Tyrol due to ideational stability, despite radical shifts in the underlying incentive structure. 
She studied Political Science, Slavic Languages, and Philosophy at the University of Cologne, where she also earned her doctorate. Before joining the University of Konstanz, Christina Zuber held positions at Pompeu Fabra University and the Universities of Bremen and Zurich.

Discussant:

Jessica De Rongé, Sciences Po, CEE

*Seminar of the key themes "Strains in democratic representation"