Is East-Central Europe Backsliding? Nightmares From the Past, Dreams of the Future

Abstract

The Central and East European dream seeks to erase the region's singularity, especially insofar as that singularity has consisted of the region's frequent victimization by larger, neighboring states, and also of its status as a wellspring and battleground of murderous conflicts and world conflagrations. Having suffered under both of the twentieth century's most brutal brands of dictatorship—fascism and communism—the CEE peoples have been dreaming of a new and better future, the future of the European Union and the Euro-Atlantic community. Do recent populist trends pose a threat to this dream and the ongoing development of democracy in the region?