5th Law&Ideology: 5th International Workshop on Law and Ideology: Central and Eastern European Constitutional Liberal Democracy in Crisis European Humanities University Vilnius, Lithuania, May 24-25, 2018 |
Conference website | http://clest.pl/blog/cfp-5th-international-workshop-on-law-and-ideology-vilnius-2018/ |
Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=5thlawideology |
Abstract registration deadline | March 24, 2018 |
Submission deadline | March 24, 2018 |
Abstract registration deadline 2 | April 30, 2018 |
Submission deadline2 | April 30, 2018 |
Expansion of populism all around the world is nowadays a subject of many academic discussions. What important to emphasize from the Central and Eastern European perspective is the fact that this problem is not typical for this of Europe. However, thanks to the constitutional liberal democracy crisis in Central and Eastern Europe, we can identify some phenomena which are appearing only in that part of the world. The third wave of democratization which was, in fact, the process of the transition from the communism to the liberal constitutional democracy, is a source of many discussions about its quality and the paths which were chosen by the political actors.
The main problem which appeared after 25 years of Central and Eastern European transition is the balance between collectivity and the individualism in the post-communist societies. The processes of the constitutional erosion and the society’s capital disappearing, identified by R. N. Bellah, are the result of the imbalance in the community, which was recognized as the main factor promoting extended individualism.
The paradox of the democratic revolutions in the Central and Eastern Europe is based on the fact that the primary factor which was stimulating them were not only individual aspirations but also the intense feeling of community limited by the political system.
It creates different problems on the different levels like culture (related to the Central and Eastern European post-communist identity) economy (implementation of neoliberal paradigm) and political collectivity. All of them are providing arguments supporting constitutional liberal democracy rejection in Central and Eastern Europe as a something entirely artificial which has no points of contact with the social reality in our part of the world.
Those three approaches are not only academic constructs, but they are also present in the public discourse. Polish and Hungarian experiences show that constitutional liberal democracy critiques are often using the same arguments justifying them by the different situations (like corruption or lack of elites change) coming from their domestic reality.
From the other side, the recent political models are in crisis not only in post-communist part of Europe but Western Europe and the United States as well. The problem of a balanced relationship between liberal individualism and the need to be a community of meanings and experiences makes it possible to raise the question of the success of liberal constitutional democracy once again.
It forced us to ask the question is the Central and Eastern liberal democracy crisis a local phenomenon or maybe a part of global processes? How deeply is located in our history and tradition and how in the problems which appeared globally?
We invite contributions exploring the global and Central and Eastern European constitutional liberal democracy crisis from various methodological perspectives, both purely theoretical and empirical, including theoretically informed case studies. Potential approaches could include, in particular, the following themes for critical reflexion:
- individualism versus community,
- collective experience of CEE region and global change,
- process of implementing a liberal constitution in CEE,
- discourse of Rights and Values,
- source and future of constitutionalism in CEE,
- political economics of liberal democracy,
- political discourse about proposed reforms of liberal democracy.
Submission Guidelines
Abstracts of 300-500 words should be submitted by 15 March 2018.
We will inform about acceptance of papers by 24 March 2018.
Committees
Organizing committee
- Filip Cyuńczyk
- Oleg Bresky
- Karolina Kocemba
Contact
All questions about submissions should be emailed to contact@clest.pl