Gerhard Schnyder (POPBACK) published a chapter in the book “The Future of Europe and the Future of the Planet” (Publisher: The Altiero Spinelli Institute for Federalist Studies) – Congratulations!

Abstract

The European Union’s seeming inability to rein in the illiberal challenge to liberal democratic rights and values in member states like Hungary and Poland has given rise to a great deal of concern and criticism. The Rule of Law mechanism, introduced in 2014 in reaction to the ‘democratic backsliding’ in Hungary, does not seem to have halted the rise of ‘illiberalism’ in Europe’s Eastern periphery. Yet, the emergence of such a “second democratic deficit” (Kelemen, 2017) in EU member states (alongside the often-criticised democratic deficit of EU-level institutions themselves) is not the only threat illiberalism poses to the future of the EU. Another one is its dismembering, as illustrated by Brexit. In this essay, I argue that both are reactions to the ‘not-so-creative destruction’ of an increasingly intolerant European project towards national varieties of capitalism. Europe faces a watershed and has to make a choice between neoliberalism, illiberalism, and non-liberalism.

 

You can find the full chapter here