News from the AUTHLIB Consortium
September 2025
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
As summer gave way to autumn, the third quarter of 2025 was marked by a rich mix of research outputs, methodological innovation, and public engagement across the AUTHLIB (Neo-authoritarianism in Europe and the liberal democratic response) consortium. Our teams published new articles and a special journal issue, released interactive data tools, hosted citizen deliberation experiments, and prepared upcoming events to connect our findings with wider academic and policy audiences.
For a snapshot of our work over July–September 2025, read our highlights below.
Upcoming Event
All our public events are recorded and the videos are available on AUTHLIB’s YouTube channel.
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Bohemia Illiberalis? Perspectives on Czechia’s Future Democratic Landscape and Foreign Policy After the Elections
AUTHLIB Panel Discussion
Monday, October 6, 2025
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. CET
Czechia will hold what could be watershed parliamentary elections on October 3–4. There is a high likelihood that they will lead to the return of former prime minister Andrej Babiš and his populist ANO party to power in a coalition with radical-right or radical-left forces. Such an outcome could profoundly affect not only the democratic quality of Czech politics, but also the country’s stance on key questions of foreign and security policy, ranging from defense spending to support for Ukraine. Czechia’s partners should therefore prepare not only for the presence of a second government from the ranks of the radical-right Patriot group (after Hungary’s) in the EU Council, but also for heightened volatility and growing Euroscepticism in Czech foreign policy.
This panel discussion, convened in the immediate aftermath of the elections and in light of the first official results, will examine the potential implications of a Babiš comeback and different coalition scenarios. It will explore their impact on Czech foreign and security policy, the country’s approach toward Ukraine and Russia, and the broader state of democratic checks and balances, media freedom, and civil society there.
Register for the webinar
Publications
Special Issue
Illiberal Politics in Europe: Ideology, Policies, and Impact
The Politics and Governance journal special issue titled “Illiberal Politics in Europe”, edited by AUTHLIB researchers Zsolt Enyedi (Central European University, Austria / CEU Democracy Institute, Hungary), Petra Guasti (Charles University, Czechia), Dean Schafer (Mississippi State University, USA), and Bálint Mikola (CEU Democracy Institute, Hungary), is now available open access.
The thematic issue focuses on the ideological and discursive foundations, policy outputs, and institutional impact of illiberal parties in Europe. The contributions highlight how illiberal actors reshape democratic institutions, popular attitudes, cultural narratives, and welfare policies. They also consider how illiberal ideas spread through mainstream political discourse. Crucially, the issue explores both the diversity of illiberal ideologies and the mechanisms of democratic resilience. Together, the studies show that illiberalism is not merely a rhetorical style but a substantive challenge to liberal democracy that operates through institutional changes, policy, and discourse.
All articles of the issue are available open access.
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Opposition to Government and Back: How Illiberal Parties Shape Immigration Discourse and Party Competition
AUTHLIB researchers Franziska Wagner (Central European University, Austria), Dean Schafer (Mississippi State University, USA / CEU Democracy Institute, Hungary), and Mehmet Yavuz (Central European University / University of Salzburg, Austria) published an article titled “Opposition to Government and Back: How Illiberal Parties Shape Immigration Discourse and Party Competition” in the Politics and Governance journal special issue “Illiberal Politics in Europe” edited by members of the AUTHLIB team.
ABSTRACT
In recent decades, illiberal far-right parties have seen electoral success, reshaped European politics, challenged established norms, and accelerated shifts in political discourse. Thought to be isolated by a cordon sanitaire, these parties are increasingly normalized, gaining footholds in parliament and government—from coalition participation in Austria to majority rule in Hungary. As illiberal far-right parties gain access to power, a pressing question arises: How does their parliamentary and governmental participation influence both their discourse and that of mainstream parties? While we know that far-right parliamentary entry influences mainstream parties’ policy adaptations and strategic positioning, less is known about their systematic effects across countries or how governing responsibilities affect their discourse. Theories of issue competition suggest that parties adjust their stances to maintain voter support, but case studies have suggested diverging results. Leveraging a novel liberal–illiberal scale based on word embeddings and dictionaries, this study examines how far-right parties’ participation in parliaments and governments affects their own immigration discourse and that of mainstream parties by analyzing the interaction between 67 parties in eight European countries (Austria, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland) over the last 15 years. Our findings show that mainstream parties, especially conservative ones, follow the shifts in the immigration discourse of far-right parties. Furthermore, we find that far-right parties minimally moderate their anti-immigration discourse when entering government and then radicalize again when they leave. The illiberal far-right therefore appears to have the net effect of pulling their country’s party system to the right on immigration. These findings clarify the consequences of illiberal party normalization for party competition, coalition strategies, and democratic stability in European politics.
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How Terror Attacks Shape Political Agendas on Multiculturalism in France
AUTHLIB researchers Elena Cossu and Caterina Froio (both SciencesPo, France) published an article titled “How Terror Attacks Shape Political Agendas on Multiculturalism in France” in the Politics and Governance journal special issue “Illiberal Politics in Europe” edited by members of the AUTHLIB team.
ABSTRACT
Terror attacks do more than take lives, they reshape the boundaries of political discourse. This article examines how terror attacks in France (2014–2021) influenced political agendas on multiculturalism by analyzing 143,870 tweets from major political parties. Drawing on data from the AUTHLIB project, we apply multilingual RoBERTa and DistilBERT models for natural language inference and sentiment analysis. While evidence of salience contagion is limited, our findings reveal position contagion: mainstream parties adopted increasingly negative rhetoric on cultural diversity and especially Islam in the aftermath of attacks, echoing far‐right narratives. In contrast, the Front National (renamed Rassemblement National in 2018) consistently maintained its negative framing. This dual dynamic—mainstream parties shifting rightward while far‐right rhetoric remains constant—contributes to the normalization of illiberal positions in French politics, where civic values, particularly laïcité, are deployed to justify cultural and religious exclusion. Methodologically, the article introduces an innovative approach for tracking party positions over time using social media data and natural language processing. Beyond the French case, the study underscores a broader paradox: liberal democracies, in seeking to defend their foundational values, may increasingly adopt illiberal discourse that undermines the very principles they aim to protect.
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Illiberal Social Policy in Europe: When Policy Implementation Meets Welfare Ideas
AUTHLIB researchers Dorottya Szikra (HUN‐REN Center for Social Sciences, Hungary) and Lauritz Autischer (Central European University, Austria) published an article titled “Illiberal Social Policy in Europe: When Policy Implementation Meets Welfare Ideas” in the Politics and Governance journal special issue “Illiberal Politics in Europe” edited by members of the AUTHLIB team.
ABSTRACT
This article examines the role of social policy in the electoral success of illiberal political parties in Europe between 2010 and 2024, systematically comparing social policies of illiberal actors in Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland. Utilizing qualitative content analysis, we differentiate between the welfare ideas of illiberal parties and their actual policy implementations to understand the mechanisms behind their sustained popularity. We paid special attention to the link between ideas and policy reforms to understand whether illiberals carried out paradigmatic changes that altered the underlying goals of social policies. Our findings reveal that illiberal actors align their social policies with the welfare ideas they propagate, targeting specific demographic groups often neglected by earlier democratic politics. We observe that besides their exclusionary rhetoric and reforms against the “undeserving outsiders,” such as immigrants, illiberals implement paradigmatic inclusionary reforms, especially to social insurance systems. Notably, the consistency and ideological alignment of their social policies contribute significantly to building loyal constituencies and challenging previous welfare state arrangements. This study highlights the necessity of recognizing the complexity of illiberal social policy to fully grasp the dynamics of their political appeal and offers insights to liberal democratic actors on effective policy responses.
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Alternatives to Liberal Democracies and Their Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe
AUTHLIB principal investigator Radosław Markowski (SWPS University, Poland) together with Michał Kotnarowski (Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland) published an article titled “Alternatives to Liberal Democracies and Their Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe” in the Politics and Governance journal special issue “Illiberal Politics in Europe” edited by members of the AUTHLIB team.
ABSTRACT
This article tentatively examines the rise and impact of populism, illiberalism, and authoritarianism as alternatives to liberal democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, using data from the 10th European Social Survey. It focuses on the complex relationship between ideologies and political regimes, where citizens’ attitudes act as mediating factors. The task of categorizing anti‐liberal and non‐democratic regimes is ontologically distinct from analyzing and understanding the essence of anti‐liberal or non‐democratic ideas. Nevertheless, a comprehensive understanding of either aspect requires an appreciation of both. Former studies show no strict determinism between regime type and public ideology, though some alignment is usually present. Our findings reveal that populist and illiberal views often reduce political legitimacy, whereas authoritarian attitudes can enhance it. These findings indicate a complex interrelationship between public attitudes, political ideologies, and regimes with political legitimacy, particularly in contexts marked by democratic regression and ascendant authoritarian inclinations. This nuanced interplay suggests divergent paths in democratic evolution across Central and Eastern European regions, with some countries moving toward stable illiberal regimes, while others face contested political climates.
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The Transnationalisation of Illiberalism (and Democratic Resistance) in Europe
AUTHLIB researchers Manuela Caiani and Batuhan Eren (Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy) published an article titled “The Transnationalisation of Illiberalism (and Democratic Resistance) in Europe” in the IDS Bulletin.
ABSTRACT
The transnationalisation of illiberal far-right parties and social movements is increasingly evident in Europe today. While there is a growing body of research on different types of regressive illiberal political actors (for example, anti-immigration parties, anti-gender organisations) and their cross-border political mobilisation, research has tended to focus on a ‘division of labour’, pertaining to either political parties or social movements. Applying the concepts of ‘transnationalisation’ and ‘diffusion’ as used in collective action research, this article seeks to bring these strands of analysis together in a common analytical framework to understand the transnationalisation of different types of illiberal far-right actors (including both political parties and non-party organisations) in terms of organisational networks, identity frames, and protest events. All aspects of the framework will be shown through the cases of the anti-gender movement in Europe, the European ‘counter-movement’ (against the populist far right), as well as the wokeism frame.
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Normalization through transnationalization?
AUTHLIB researchers Manuela Caiani (Scuola Normale Superiore) published an article titled “Normalization through transnationalization? Far right international coordination and cooperation” in the Journal of Contemporary European Studies.
ABSTRACT
This paper examines the normalization of the far right via the transnationalization of identities, networks and mobilization. Normalization is related to transformations in the socio-political landscape, and the travelling across borders of discursive strategies and practices of backlash political players play a role on it. Focusing on the crucial Italian case, first, we distinguish extent of far right transnationalization in terms of framing strategy, organizational contacts and networks, and events, underlining the existence of different paths toward the same outcome. Second, we apply these concepts to key cases of various types of far right organizations, tracing the trasnationalization processes of the political party Fratelli d’Italia (FdI), two radical right movements (GI Italia, and CasaPound) and one ‘movement-party’ (Forza Nuova). The findings, (i) underline the contextual political opportunities European integration provides for the transnationalization of the far right and (ii) identify distinct practices and processes of transnationalization across different types of actors. These aspects are fundamental to consider, as the far right’s transnational alignment may lead to a stronger European far-right public sphere, in opposition to the one envisioned by the EU. We can call this normalization or mainstreaming. The study draws on an analysis of organisational documents, protest event data and interviews.
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The project “AUTHLIB – Neo-Authoritarianisms in Europe and the Liberal Democratic Response” is funded by the European Union and the UK Research and Innovation. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or UK Research and Innovation. Neither the European Union nor the UK Research and Innovation can be held responsible for them.
