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Recent developments in Hungary and Poland have made democratic backsliding a major issue of concern within the European Union (EU). This article focuses on the secondary agents that facilitate democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland: the European People’s Party (EPP), which has continually protected the Hungarian Fidesz government from EU sanctions, and the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz, which repeatedly promised to block any EU-level sanctions against Poland in the Council. The article analyses these agents’ behaviour as an instance of transnational complicity and passes a tentative judgment as to which of the two cases is normatively more problematic. The analysis has implications for possible countervailing responses to democratic backsliding within EU member states.
Current work on populism stresses its relationship to nationalism. However, populists increasingly make claims to represent ‘the people’ across beyond national borders. This advent of ‘transnational populism’ has implications for work on cosmopolitan democracy and global justice. In this paper, we advance and substantiate three claims. First, we stress populism’s performative and claimmaking nature. Second, we argue that transnational populism is both theoretically possible and empirically evident in the contemporary global political landscape. Finally, we link these points to debates on democracy beyond the state. We argue that, due to the a) performative nature of populism, b) complex interdependencies of peoples, and c) need for populists to gain and maintain support, individuals in one state will potentially have their preferences, interests, and wants altered by transnational populists’ representative claims. We unpack what is normatively problematic in terms of democratic legitimacy about this and discuss institutional and non-institutional remedies.
The incorporation of Greater Poland [in Polish: Wielkopolska] into the Kingdom of Prussia was the beginning of a direct neighbourhood of Poles and Germans in a relatively small area. This paper shall present the experiences of Prussian / German settlers in the Poznań Province which are based on autobiographical literary texts authored by officials and teachers (with their families) who came to this region. While reading these memoirs one can infer that they made efforts to “familiarise” new and ethnically foreign elements in the annexed territory. They cultivated and promoted their own culture here while concurrently not being too eager to participate in the culture and social life of the Polish locals. They manifest characteristic features typical of the colonist’s attitude. On the one hand, they present the country they colonise as foreign. On the other hand, they depict indigenous people whom they describe as individuals standing on a lower levelcivilisation-wise compared to the German “culturebearers” who came here [“Kulturträger”].
The key issue in the discussed literary material of the longterm mobility of German families of officials and teachers allows to consider the following issues: How do the authors present migration to the Poznań Province and its effects? What stood in the way of building a sense of belonging and relationship between representatives of different nationalities in a new place? What does the studied autobiographical material say about the phenomenon of transnationality? Can one talk about transnational practices or their elements based on the specificity of the Poznań Province?
Although throughout the history of anthropology the ethnography of urban societies was never an important topic, investigations on cities in Africa contributed to the early theoretical development of urban studies in social sciences. As the ethnography of rural migrants in towns made clear, cultural diversity and creativity are foundational and permanent elements of urban cultures in Africa (and beyond). Currently, two new aspects complement these insights: 1) Different forms of mobility have received a new awareness through the concept of transnationalism. They are much more complex, including not only rural–urban migration, but also urban–urban migration, and migrations with a destination beyond the continent. 2) Urban life-worlds also include the appropriation of globally circulating images and lifestyles, which contribute substantially to the current cultural dynamics of cities in Africa. These two aspects are the reasons for the high complexity of urban contexts in Africa. Therefore, whether it is still appropriate to speak about the “locality” of these life-worlds has become questionable. At the same time, these new aspects explain the self-consciousness of members of urban cultures in Africa. They contribute to the expansive character of these societies and to the impression that cities in Africa host the most innovative and creative societies worldwide.