Navigating democratic backsliding in the EU: a comparative analysis of Poland and Hungary.

Democracy and democratic values are embedded into the core idea of the functioning of the European Union. Therefore, deterioration of these principles creates significant challenges for the Union. The main goal of this thesis is to explore responses of the EU to democratic backsliding in the member states. In order to identify the strategy towards democratic decline, a comparative analysis of Polish and Hungarian cases was conducted. Aiming to reach the research objective, the following research questions were stated: how has the EU addressed the democracy decline in Poland and Hungary? What are the differences between the EU approaches towards Poland and Hungary? What are the main challenges the EU faces in addressing the democratic backsliding? The study provides a comprehensive literature review on democracy and democratic backsliding, mapping the main tools and mechanisms applied by the European Union to address the problem. The analysis of the Polish and Hungarian cases is supported by an examination of crucial indices, including the Liberal Democracy index, Core Civil Society index, Rule of Law index, Freedom of Expression and Alternative Sources of Information index composed by Varieties of Democracy, along with Corruption Perception Index, created by Transparency International. The general timeframe of the study covers the period from 1989 to the European Parliament elections in 2024, focusing particularly on important governmental changes in both countries: the Law and Justice (PiS) party gaining power in Poland, and the Hungarian Civic Alliance (FIDESZ) coming to power in Hungary. The outcome of this work provides an overview of the issue of democratic backsliding in the EU member states together with the discussion of strategies applied and the main challenges faced.