Democratic Inoculation in Slovakia and Serbia: Do Polities Learn from the Experience
of Democratic Backsliding?
Democratic Inoculation in Slovakia and Serbia: Do Polities Learn from the Experience
of Democratic Backsliding?
Author(s): Ján Mykalchyk HradickýSubject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Political Theory, Governance, Recent History (1900 till today), Security and defense, Political behavior, Comparative politics
Published by: Ústav politických vied Slovenskej akadémie vied
Keywords: democratic backsliding; inoculation; process-tracing; Slovakia; Serbia
Summary/Abstract: Does a polity learn from the past period of democratic backsliding? Democratic backsliding is often understood as a regional trend in Central Europe, but it is so far absent in Slovakia. This paper argues that it is because of democratic inoculation – experience with the hybrid regime in the 1990s that increased the persistence of Slovak democracy. Theory-building process tracing is equipped to trace the democratic inoculation through the mechanisms of the awareness of the threats to democracy and the creation of symbols. Quantitative text analysis is used to operationalize these processes. The empirical analysis offers strong evidence for the theory of democratic inoculation. To refine this theory, the Serbian case is analyzed as Serbia has also overcome a hybrid regime in the 1990s but backslides in the 2010s. It is argued that democratic inoculation failed there due to the lack of polarization and the stalled reforms in the post-Milošević era.
Journal: Studia Politica Slovaca
- Issue Year: XVII/2024
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 36-58
- Page Count: 23
- Language: English
