Democracy vs Political Entrepreneurs: Why are People Abondoning Democracy for the Nation

The Department of International Relations cordially invites you to a discussion on democratic backsliding and ethno-nationalism with Dr. Filip Milacic.

Join us for a talk on the article "Democracy vs Political Entrepreneurs: Why are People Abondoning Democracy for the Nation". In many countries in recent years the appeals to safeguard the nation have been followed by democratic backsliding. In spite of it, the current literature on democratic backsliding has not recognized ethno-nationalism as a separate explanatory variable of the phenomenon or it merged ethno-nationalism with other explanations. Drawing on empirical evidence (including the data of the experimental surveys) from several countries (Poland, Serbia, Hungary, Turkey, and Israel) in which substantial democratic backsliding occurred recently, Dr. Milacic introduces ethno-nationalism as a complementary explanation of democratic backsliding and address the question of the operationalization of their relationship. Relying on the findings from the social psychology Dr. Milacic demonstrates that political actors (entrepreneurs) in these countries portrayed national identity as being under threat. Their successful creation of an out-group (a threat to the nation) furthermore increased the willingness of voters to tolerate undemocratic behavior for the sake of allegedly endangered in-group (the nation) and its identity, i.e., it enabled the weaponization of national identity against democracy. Bearing in mind that in spite of similar attacks Serbian, Turkish, and Hungarian democracies broke down, while Polish and Israeli only eroded to democracy of a lower quality, Dr. Milacic offers some insights on the conditions under which ethno-nationalism is more likely to prove fatal to democracy.

Dr. Filip Milacic 

Filip Milacic obtained the PhD at the Humboldt University, Berlin. He is senior researcher for democracy and society at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), visiting faculty at the Central European University (CEU), and research affiliate at CEU's Democracy Institute. He held visiting scholar positions at MacMillan Center, Yale University, at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna, and at the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS), University of Rijeka. Previously, he worked for the Organization for the Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and at the University of Montenegro. He is author of two books: "Nationalstaatsbildung, Krieg und Konsolidierung der Demokratie. Kroatien, Serbien und Montenegro" (Springer, 2017) and "Stateness and Democratic Consolidation: Lessons from Former Yugoslavia" (Springer, 2022). His work was published in many academic journals such as Journal of Democracy, Ethnopolitics, Nations and Nationalism, Nationalities Papers, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies etc. 

The event will take place at AB2 345 on the 18th of April at 12:00.