In the last decade, research on the state of democracy in Europe has become more numerous than before, primarily because democracy itself, and its quality in many countries, has deteriorated. The European Social Survey allows for the analysis of many detailed aspects of democracy and its models. Generally, Europeans in 2022 support democracy just as much as they did a decade earlier. However, clear regional differences are evident; while Western Europeans focus on and value almost exclusively the liberal model, Eastern Europeans expect much more from democracy. They value – albeit slightly less – the social democratic, direct, or populist models. Poles stand out among other Eastern Europeans in many respects. They are very demanding towards democracy and at the same time critical of its daily functioning. They value living in a democracy and are simultaneously averse to authoritarian solutions. A detailed comparison of attitudes towards democracy, populist, illiberal, and authoritarian solutions among contemporary Poles and Hungarians will be presented. The differences, especially the changes that have occurred in both societies over the last decade, accurately explain why, in the case of Hungary, we can speak of a consolidated illiberal regime with authoritarian tendencies, and in the case of Poland – not. These data explain why in Poland in 2023, candidates for autocrats were removed from power and why this is not possible in Hungary.

Radoslaw Markowski is Professor of political science at the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw and Principal Investigator of the Polish National Election Study. Recurring Visiting Professor at CEU, Budapest, in the past visiting professor at Duke, Wisconsin-Madison, Rutgers universities. Specializes in comparative politics, democracy and democratization, party systems and electoral studies. He has published in peer reviewed journals, among other in Electoral Studies, Party Politics, Political Studies, West European Politics. Main books: Post-communist Party Systems (Cambridge,1999, co-author), Europeanising Party Politics? (Manchester, 2011, co-editor) and Democratic Audit of Poland (Peter Lang 2015, co-author). He is also an expert of the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), Bertelsmann SGI project and Dahrendorf Forum at the Hertie School of Governance; Member of the editorial advisory boards of a number of academic journals, among them: European Journal of Political Research, Political Studies, Populism, European Union Politics; Steering/Planning committee member or Principal Investigator of several world-wide and pan-European projects: Comparative Study of Electoral Studies (CSES), European Election Study (EES), European Social Survey (ESS), three projects within the Framework Program 6 and 7.

This talk is co-hosted by the ANU Centre for European Studies, as part of the ANUCES Jean Monnet Project Liberal Democracy in Action delivered with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, and the Australian Institute of Polish Affairs (AIPA).