Political parties that challenge some of the most fundamental tenets of liberal democracy are on the rise across Europe. The team behind the AUTHLIB project is investigating the factors behind the growing appeal of illiberal forces, which can then inform the development of tools to defend liberal democracy against the challenges it faces, as Professor Zsolt Enyedi explains.
Defending liberal democracy
The ideal of liberal democracy is underpinned by certain fundamental principles, like constraints on power, accountability, transparency, and tolerance of different social attitudes and worldviews. However, over recent decades illiberal governments have been elected in Hungary, Poland, and Italy, while parties that question some fundamental tenets of liberal democracy are on the rise in other parts of Europe. “Parties that can be considered to be of the radical right are among the principal contenders for power in long established democracies such as France and Austria for example, while some liberal democratic norms are being widely questioned,” says Zsolt Enyedi, Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna. As a Principal Investigator in the AUTHLIB (Neoauthoritarianisms in Europe and the Liberal Democratic Response) project, an initiative which brings together researchers from eight universities and think tanks across Europe, Professor Enyedi is part of a team looking at the root causes of this shift in Europe in general
and in seven countries in particular. “We look at attitudes among the wider population and at the ideologies produced by intellectuals.
We also try to put them into historical and psychological contexts,” he outlines.
The AUTHLIB project
This research is inter-disciplinary in scope, with the project team using a variety of methods to investigate mass attitudes, political ideologies and their associated variations, and how changing attitudes are being translated into policy. The project’s agenda includes conducting surveys, lab experiments and quantitative text analysis, alongside other strands of research. “We have also analysed legislative texts and party manifestos in search of policy changes under illiberal governments. This methodological diversity is a unique aspect of the project,” says Bálint Mikola, a researcher at the CEU Democracy Institute who is also working on AUTHLIB. The wider aim in the project is to build a fuller understanding of why the liberal consensus has broken down. “What is it that makes
illiberal initiatives increasingly appealing, across many different European countries?” asks Professor Enyedi. “As a final stage, we plan to come up with recommendations to support liberal democracy, building on empirical investigation into the challenges that it faces. We want to build our recommendations on a very detailed investigation of the data.”
Part of this work involves looking through speeches, party programmes, social media conversations and other materials to investigate the language of illiberalism and probe its appeal. This will help researchers differentiate between different types of illiberal forces, which Professor Enyedi says is a major priority in the project. “Some illiberal actors are motivated primarily by nationalist, nativist resentment for example, while others have a more religious fundamentalist character, and again others are inspired by leftist ideas,” he explains. These parties may also take very different positions on certain areas of policy. “Some parties and movements are fighting culture wars on all fronts, particularly on women’s issues and the treatment of sexual minorities. Other parties
place less emphasis on these issues, and even accept some emancipatory ideas concerning gender equality and the treatment of sexual minorities,” continues Professor Enyedi. “We see some interesting differences between these parties. Some of them are very egalitarian and aim to help the poor. Others are more traditionally right-wing, in the sense that they focus not on redistribution, but more on keeping taxes low. Overall, these challengers have been able to show not only that there are alternatives to the liberal democratic mainstream, but also to innovate in terms of management and competence.”
as being outside the political mainstream, many of which have attracted significant support in recent elections across Europe, which Professor Enyedi and his colleagues have been keeping a close eye on. “We are closely studying election results and reflecting on them. We ran surveys in seven countries following the 2024 elections to the European Parliament, and we will consider the impact of these elections on basic value orientations and how people think about the functioning of democracy,” he explains.
AUTHLIB
Neo-Authoritarianisms in Europe and the Liberal Democratic Response Project Objectives
The AUTHLIB project is investigating the root causes of the shift away from liberal democratic norms that has been observed across many European countries in recent years. Researchers from eight universities and think tanks across Europe are investigating the different varieties of illiberalism that can be observed across Europe, with the aim of developing a toolkit to defend and strengthen liberal democracy.
Project Funding
Funded by the European Union (Horizon Europe, Grant Nr.: 101060899) and UK Research and Innovation under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee (Grant Nr. 10041578).
Project Consortium Central European University
Scuola
SWPS University • Transatlantic Foundation / The German Marshall Fund of the United States • University of Oxford • University of Vienna
Contact Details
The final stage of the project’s research centres around developing a toolkit to defend liberal democracy, based on a detailed understanding of the challenges it faces. “Our data will show the differences between the various groups of illiberals. From that point, policy makers can distinguish among their concerns and can develop better tailored responses,” explains Professor Enyedi.
“What is it that makes illiberal initiatives increasingly appealing, across many different European countries?”
The reasons behind growing popular support for these parties are correspondingly complex and varied, but Professor Enyedi says there is a general shift in the overall structure of the politics of advanced capitalist societies. Whereas in the past centre-left parties garnered a lot of their support from the working class, this group is increasingly supportive of illiberal forces, for a number of reasons. “One is that they simply don’t agree with the worldview and agenda of their more educated compatriots. They are less cosmopolitan, less progressive on many issues, and are more worried about the security and survival of their native culture,” outlines Professor Enyedi. Economic factors are also at play, with those who have lost out due to globalisation more likely to support illiberal parties than those who benefit from postindustrial market structures. “This polarisation goes a long way to explaining why people join illiberal movements,” says Professor Enyedi.
“The urban/rural divide is also a factor in many countries, along with a general loss of optimism about the future, which was less common with previous generations.”
This is manifested in the growing belief that the young people of today will have a lower standard of living than their parents, and many blame liberal cosmopolitan elites for allowing this situation to develop. This may then lead people to turn to illiberal parties or those seen
Sharing results beyond academia
An e-learning platform is currently under development, which will represent one of the principal outputs from the project. There are also other public-facing aspects of the project’s work, as Professor Enyedi explains.
“We are working for example on allowing any interested individual to play with the data we have gathered about ideological, political spaces in Europe. They will then be able to position themselves with respect to the positions of the parties and movements that we have mapped,” he says. Researchers also plan to write a number of policy papers to shed new light on the diversity of the illiberal landscape and how some of the illiberal challengers in Europe operate.
“We seek to share our findings and results about such developments beyond academia, with policy-makers and the wider public, as well,” continues Professor Enyedi.
“Concurrently, we are also working on a number of academic articles and books, which will be published in different journals and volumes.”
Zsolt Enyedi Professor Central European University E: enyedizs@ceu.edu E: info_authlib@ceu.edu
W: https://www.authlib.eu : https://x.com/AuthlibEU : https://www.youtube.com/@AuthlibEU : https://www.facebook.com/AuthlibEU
Zsolt Enyedi is a Professor of Political Science at the Central European University in Vienna. The focus of his research interests is on party politics, comparative government, church and state relations, and political psychology, especially authoritarianism, prejudices, and political tolerance.
