IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jcmkts/v63y2025i3p683-703.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The European Union as a Target: When Do Democratic Backsliders Rhetorically Challenge the EU?

Author

Listed:
  • Kari Waters
  • Samantha Call

Abstract

Populist actors who conduct democratic backsliding incrementally eat away at institutional checks on power. Whilst they largely focus on domestic institutions, European Union (EU) member states have an international democratic institution to consider as well. In this article, we present and test a theory explaining changes in backslider rhetoric towards the EU. Whilst they often claim a position of Euroscepticism, their interactions with the EU are complicated. We argue that anti‐democratic actors consider the public perception of the EU and the likelihood of enforcement and sanctions from the EU when deciding what type of rhetoric to use. Using speeches from Orbán in Hungary and Duda in Poland, we find that the effect of public opinion on speech sentiment varies between leaders. We also find evidence of position blurring in response to increases in EU threat levels.

Suggested Citation

  • Kari Waters & Samantha Call, 2025. "The European Union as a Target: When Do Democratic Backsliders Rhetorically Challenge the EU?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 683-703, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:63:y:2025:i:3:p:683-703
    DOI: 10.1111/jcms.13641
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13641
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jcms.13641?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:63:y:2025:i:3:p:683-703. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0021-9886 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.