Illiberalism, polarisation, social resilience, and resistance

Concepts in dynamic tension

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v7i4.945
Abstract Views: 808 PDF Downloads: 725

Abstract

Illiberal regimes undermine human rights norms that entail equal legal protections of citizens and social groups. Illiberal actors often intentionally drive social polarisation in hopes of bolstering their support and securing their political position. This strains liberal democratic-oriented social resilience and provokes resistance to the illiberal regime. The articles in this special issue, looking at the regimes and societies of Central and Eastern Europe—where the establishment and operation of illiberal regimes is conspicuous, where ‘pernicious polarisation’ (Somer, McCoy, & Luke, 2021) that strains social resilience is often striking, and where resistance is crucial to halt or reverse illiberalisation—address this nexus of concepts. In this introduction, we review the four key concepts that undergird the special issue’s articles. 

Author Biographies

Michael C. Zeller, Central European University

Michael Zeller is an Associate Researcher at the Democracy Institute, Central European University, working on the ‘Building Resilience against Violent Extremism and Polarisation’ (BRaVE) project. He is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science at Central European University. He is also the Head of the Organisation Research Unit at the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR). His research focuses on social movements and contentious politics, particularly far-right socio-politics.

Zsuzsanna Vidra, Central European University

Zsuzsanna Vidra is a research fellow at the Democracy Institute, Central European University (Hungary) and a senior lecturer at Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE PPK), Intercultural Psychology and Education (Hungary). She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (France), an MA in Sociology from ELTE (Hungary) and an MA in Nationalism Studies from the Central European University (Hungary).

Downloads

Published

2022-01-03

How to Cite

[1]
Zeller, M.C. and Vidra, Z. 2022. Illiberalism, polarisation, social resilience, and resistance: Concepts in dynamic tension. Intersections. East European Journal of Society and Politics. 7, 4 (Jan. 2022), 1–12. DOI:https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v7i4.945.

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 4 (2021): Resilience and resistance in illiberal regimes

Section

Editorial

License

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work three months after publication simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. This acknowledgement is not automatic, it should be asked from the editors and can usually be obtained one year after its first publication in the journal.