19th Annual Conference of Central European Political Science Association
LIBERAL OR OTHER DEMOCRACY? 25 YEARS AFTER “ANNUS MIRABILUS” IN CENTRAL EUROPE
25 – 27 September, Prague, Czech Republic
Organized by
the Central European Political Science Association
in cooperation with
the Department of Politics and Humanities, Metropolitan University Prague
and
the Czech Political Science Association
with the official guarantee of Mr. Milan Štěch, President of the Senate of the Parliament of the
Czech Republic
Venue: Metropolitan University Prague, building Žižkov (Prokopova 100/16)
Since the year 1989 the new European democracies are developed in Central and Eastern
Europe after the collapse of the Soviet camp. Formation of institution characteristic for
representative democracies, successful transformation of former stat-planned economy
towards the liberal market, and Europeanization with the symbolic peak – the EUMembership – are the most visible signs of transition for the Communist dictatorship towards
democracy in East Central Europe. It was just this process that divided initially monolithic
post-Soviet zone of big transformation – as A. Ágh labeled the Central and Eastern Europe –
and drew mental border between (East) Central Europe and Eastern Europe. While the (East)
Central Europe countries entered about the millennium the consolidation phases of their
transition, the countries in Eastern Europe showed significant defects since the very beginning
of the transition and often were placed in the analyses into the groups of illiberal democracies,
hybrid regimes or blunt among the non-democratic regimes. At the border between these two
groups of countries balanced the countries of the Western Balkans that (re-)started their
transition only after the end of 1990s and are just now trying to bring the transition into the
consolidation period. Also for these countries the possible EU-membership represents the
symbolic completion of regime change.
Nevertheless, despite the comparative advantages also in (East) Central European countries
we could observe within the last 25 years partial, but often significant deficits and
malfunctions as regards their democratic character. At one side we have in mind interim
deficiencies based on specific institutional, political or personal constellation. On the other
side, the political and social scientist often stress and discuss also structural deficiencies
within the (East( Central European polities such as weak civil society and un-efficient
political participation, low party membership, unstable party systems, formal institutions
without internal democratic content, defects in rule of law or relatively strong presence of
political populism or even political extremism.
All mentioned problems might be generally subsumed as separate phenomenon that creates
parts of general issue – the nature and quality of democracy in Central Europe. Seemingly,
such development has to be discussed also as the part of more general European or even
“Western” crisis of democracy as the events in many EU-15 countries indicate such as
presidentialization and personalization of politics, mediocracy and generally the strengthening
links among politics, business and media, the growth of xenophobia and populism etc. On the
other side, many patterns we can observe in (East) Central Europe might be accentuated as
domestic, often covered under the old label of “post-Communism”.
The aim of the conference is to open the floor for discussion about the nature, quality and
stability of democracy in Central Europe. There might be discussed many separate trends and
signs in Central European countries showing the general background – the weakening of
liberal democracy and strengthening of political populism and authoritative patterns including
the “strong” leaders tendencies in many of countries in the region. As very specific and
symbolic sign of such development we can mention the deep crisis of “traditional”
partisanship in many of Central European countries followed up by electoral successes of
business-firm parties or “political entrepreneurs” in the last years.
Within the conference panels both the theoretical and analytical contributions might be
presented with the general theme “liberal or other democracy in Central Europe”. Below we
mention brief list of themes that might be discussed within the panels:
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Quality of democracy in Central Europe
Patterns of democracy in Central Europe
Political participation in Central Europe
Path dependency and historical perspective of (non)democratic regimes in Central Europe
(Non)democratic discourse in Central Europe
Challenges to democracy in Central Europe
Political parties, party systems, party membership in Central Europe
Populism, Political Radicalism and Extremism in Central Europe
Electoral processes in Central Europe
Constitutional engineering in Central Europe
Governance in Central Europe
Governments in Central Europe
The mentioned list of sub-themes or/and panels is surely not comprehensive. While participants
are especially invited to respond to the conference theme, proposals on all aspects of Central
European politics will be considered. The conference is open to the researches from all countries
with the interest in Central European affairs.
The academic program for the conference will be organized in the usual format of panels. Each
panel should comprise four to five papers plus chair. We welcome individual paper proposals and
/ or complete panel proposals as well.
The tasks for a panel chair include:
 proposing a panel around a theme;
 maintaining a balance between established and new-coming scholars, and postgraduate
students;
 maintaining a balance with regards to the national affiliation of panelist (up to two panel
members from the same national political science association)
Proposals for panels should include:
 Name, institutional affiliation and email address of the proposed panel chair.
 Proposed panel title and summary of its theme (approx. 250 words + up to 5 keywords).
 Tentative indication of possible panelists including their names, institutional affiliation
and email addresses
The closing date for PANEL PROPOSALS is midnight CET on Monday 31 March 2014.
Proposal for papers should include:
 Name, institutional affiliation and email address of the proposed contributor.
 Proposed paper title and summary of its theme (approx. 250 words + up to 5 keywords).
 Proposed
panel
where
the
paper
could
be
placed
(if
known)
The closing deadline for PAPER PROPOSALS is midnight CET on Friday 9 May 2014.
Proposals should be submitted to cabada@mup.cz.
Program Committee of the conference:
Ladislav Cabada, CEPSA and Metropolitan University Prague/Czech Republic (Program Chair)
Jakub Charvát, Metropolitan University Prague/Czech Republic
Miro Haček, CEPSA and University of Ljubljana/Slovenia
Petr Just, Metropolitan University Prague/Czech Republic
Karin Liebhart, University of Vienna/Austria
Miroslav Mareš, Czech Political Science Association and Masaryk University/Czech Republic
Ana Matan, CEPSA and University of Zagreb/Croatia
Irmina Matonyte, CEPSA and ISM University of Management and Economics, Vilnius/Lithuania
Blanka Říchová, Czech Political Science Association and Charles University Prague/Czech
Republic
Publication possibilities:
The organizers do not prepare publication of the conference volume. Nevertheless, we would like
to offer to all scholars presenting their contribution the possibility to publish their papers in the
form of scientific article. For such purposes we offer below mentioned opportunities:
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best three or four comparative papers could be placed in Journal of Comparative Politics
(www.jofcp.org), which is indexed and abstracted in all recognized international databases
four to six papers devoted to the Central European politics could be published in Politics
in Central Europe (www.politicsince.eu), which is indexed in SSOAR
The editors of mentioned journal would like to point out that all contributions are subject of peerreview process.
Financial issues:
 the conference fee is not required
 the organizers do not cover the travel costs
 the organizers will reimburse the accommodation costs for app. 20 active participants of
the conference based on the selection within the national association (2 persons from each
of CEPSA national associations, each person 2 nights) + Senior Presidents
 the organizers are prepared to help to all participants in search for accommodation