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Democracy and Its Enemies in Europe: Successes and Failures in Combating Autocratic Threats book cover

1st Edition

Democracy and Its Enemies in Europe Successes and Failures in Combating Autocratic Threats

Edited By Joanna Rak, Roman Bäcker Copyright 2025
238 Pages
by Routledge

238 Pages
by Routledge

238 Pages
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
This book analyses the evolving nature of democratic threats and identifies strategies necessary to safeguard democratic governance in an increasingly turbulent political environment. It explores how democratic systems in Europe have faced, and continue to face, threats from various entities that exhibit essential characteristics of being enemies of democracy, including fascism, Nazism,... Read more

Part 1: Introduction

1. Theorising Successes and Failures of Enemies Threatening Empowered Political Nations

Joanna Rak and Roman Bäcker

2. Theoretical Perspectives on Enemies of Democracy: Navigating the Battlefield

Roman Bäcker and Joanna Rak

3. From Banning Paramilitary Groups to Banning Social Media Profiles: Enemies of Democracy and Four Generations of Militant Democratic Means

Maciej Skrzypek

Part 2: Militant Democracy and Its Enemies

4. Fascism as a Phenomenon of Political Modernism and Totalitarian Democracy

Jacek Bartyzel

5. How Authoritarian Actors Create a Democratic Regime: The Evolution of Franco’s Spain From Fascist Roots to Militant Democracy

José Luis Orella Martinez and Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Hernandez

6. From Weimar Democracy to Totalitarianism: How the NSDAP’s Social Mobilisation and Elite Elimination Paved the Way for Nazi Victory

Roman Bäcker

7. Why Did European Terrorists Fail in the Twentieth Century? The Traditional Enemies of Democracy and Their Struggle for Political Relevance

José Luis Orella Martinez

8. Strategy and Resilience of Democratic Actors in Interwar Czechoslovakia: Enemies of Democracy

Jan Holzer

Part 3: Neo- and Cyber Militant Democracy and Their Enemies

9. Russia’s Political Deep Structures as the Inherent Enemy of Democracy: Chronicle of a Death Foretold in Terms of Systems Analysis

Joachim Diec

10. Nation and Sovereignty Under the Hungarian Fundamental Law of 2011

Agnieszka Bień-Kacała and Lóránt Csink

11. Hybrid Interference at the Polish-Belarusian Border in 2021: Explaining the Success of Destabilisation Efforts

Karolina Owczarek

12. Why Do Electoral Meddlers Fail to Succeed in Estonia? Explaining Resilience to Interference in Democracy

Magdalena Musiał-Karg, Louis Wierenga, and Martinas Malužinas

13. Extreme Populist Parties and the Presidentialisation of Politics as a New Threat to the Fifth French Republic’s Constitutional Order

Łukasz Jakubiak

Part 4: Conclusions

14. Confronting Old and New Enemies: The Evolution from Militant to Cyber Militant Democracy

Joanna Rak and Roman Bäcker

Biography

Joanna Rak is Associate Professor of Political Sciences at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.

Roman Bäcker is Professor of Political Sciences at Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland.

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