Zmierzch demokracji liberalnej? Turcja oraz państwa Europy Środkowej i Wschodniej w perspektywie porównawczej

The dynamic process of democratization has been noticeably changing in the recent decade. In many states in the world, including Europe and its neighbourhood, we can observe the phenomenon most often called ”de-democratization”. This analysis is aimed at investigating this complex process, concentrating on the cases of Turkey as well as selected states from Central and Eastern Europe – Hungary and Poland. All three countries are involved in the process of unfi nished democratic consolidation (although Hungary and Poland were much more advanced in this process than Turkey). At the same, in the recent years, there have been symptoms of breaking off or even reversal of the democratization process there (although Poland still differs in this respect from Turkey and Hungary – due to a relatively early stage of the new phenomenon, developing after the 2015 elections). The aim of the article is to approach the issue of the state of the liberal democracy comparatively and answer the following questions: Do we really observe the departure from the model of liberal democracy? If so, in which direction? What are the reasons for observed changes concerning the political regimes? It is important to answer these questions for a better identifi cation of the changes concerning the political regimes and understanding of how the liberal model of democracy works. The choice of the aforementioned states is aimed at showing that the problem with the liberal model of democracy concerns not only the states on the outskirts of Europe but also the European Union members. Thus, it is a more universal phenomenon. Assuming that there are problems with liberal democracy in countries in the EU and its neighbourhood, the author verifi es the following hypotheses in the text: H1: the problems with keeping the liberal model of democracy come out as a result of the dominance of the formal democratization in the analyzed countries H2: the substantial contribution to the process of de-democratization, reflecting the problems with keeping the liberal model of democracy, are, on the one hand, the political culture and historical legacy, and, on the other hand, the ruling of parties critical of the EU and the liberal model of democracy as well as the social and economic problems in the country.