19Th Annual Conference of Central European Political Science Association

19Th Annual Conference of Central European Political Science Association

19th Annual Conference of Central European Political Science Association

Liberal or other democracy? 25 years after “AnnusMirabilus” in Central Europe

25 – 27September, 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 EU-Membership – 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:

  • 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 panelistsincluding their names, institutional affiliation and email addresses

The closing date for panel proposals is midnight CET on Monday31 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 .

Program Committee of the conference:

LadislavCabada, CEPSA and Metropolitan University Prague/Czech Republic (Program Chair)

Jakub Charvát, Metropolitan University Prague/Czech Republic

MiroHaček, CEPSA and University of Ljubljana/Slovenia

Petr Just, Metropolitan University Prague/Czech Republic

Karin Liebhart, University of Vienna/Austria

MiroslavMareš, Czech Political Science Association and Masaryk University/Czech Republic

Ana Matan, CEPSA and University of Zagreb/Croatia

IrminaMatonyte, CEPSA and ISM University of Management and Economics, Vilnius/Lithuania

BlankaŘíchová, 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:

  • best three or four comparative papers could be placed in Journal of Comparative Politics ( 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 ( which is indexed in SSOAR

The editors of mentioned journal would like to point out that all contributions are subject of peer-review 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