Gendering Democratic Backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe. A
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CENTER FOR POLICY STUDIES CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY Nádor utca 9., H–1051 Budapest, Hungary [email protected], http://cps.ceu.edu Published in 2019 by the Center for Policy Studies, Central European University © CEU CPS, 2019 ISBN 978-615-5547-07-2 (pdf) The views in this publication are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Central European University or the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission. This text may be used only for personal research purposes. Additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copies or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the year and the publisher. This publication has been produced in the framework of the project ‘Enhancing the EU’s Transboundary Crisis Management Capacities: Strategies for Multi-Level Leadership (TransCrisis)’. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 649484. Cover design: Borbala Soos Design & layout: Borbala Varga “Gendering Democratic Backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe is a must-read for anyone interested in the contemporary dynamics of illiberal democracies and reconfiguration of gender regimes. The theoretical introduction by Andrea Krizsán and Conny Roggeband displays great clarity and provides a neat structure for the whole volume. The book collects thick, but well nuanced and insightful analysis of recent developments of four CEE countries: Croatia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The case studies are fascinating, impressive for their richness, but thanks to the common analytical framework, the volume is consistent and accessible. The book is timely and essential for better understanding of what is happening to our democracies, gender policies and feminist movements.” Marta Rawłuszko, Assistant Professor University of Warsaw “So far we missed analysis of gender – state – civil society relations under the process of de-democratization. “Gendering Democratic Backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe” by Krizsán and Roggeband fills this gap while constructing a careful theoretical framework that is coherently applied by their co-authors to country case studies covering Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Romania. Authors of the book present the regression and reversal of gender equality policies and the changing landscape of women’s activism in such novel circumstances. A must read to all who are concerned about the future of gender equality and women’s activism in the region.” Szikra Dorottya, Senior Research Fellow Institute of Sociology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Two decades after transition to democracy, countries in the Central Eastern European region are now experiencing democratic backsliding. De-democratization processes not only challenge democratic institutions but can also be seen as a form of cultural backlash against social and political changes that took place during the last decades. Gender and sexual orientation based equality is particularly hit: the cultural backlash translates into gendered processes of de-democratization. Attacks on gender equality and against actors standing for it are particularly widespread in countries of the Central and Eastern European region. This book aims to map gendered aspects of the decline of democracy in four countries in the Central and Eastern European region: Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Romania. We have a dual focus. First, we look at how processes of de-democratization affect previously established gender equality rights and what forms gender policy backsliding takes in the region. We are interested in learning how governments operate to block or reverse gender equality policies and what specific policy fields or issues are the main targets. Are policies actively removed or do we see more subtle dismantling strategies? First, we ask if these dynamics and mechanisms are country specific or whether we can find similar patterns across countries? Second, we look at how these developments affect defenders and promotors of gender rights. How do women movements respond to these attacks? Do they change strategies? Do they falter in hostile conditions or we see resistance, maturing, diversifying coalition capacities? What do the anti-gender attacks and hostile states mean for movement capacities and strategies? The introduction provides a conceptual framework for the analysis. Separate chapters discuss gendered dynamics of de-democratization in the four countries. Andrea Krizsán is a Research Fellow at the Center for Policy Studies, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. Conny Roggeband is a lecturer at the Department of Political Science of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. GENDERING DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE A COMPARATIVE AGENDA Edited by Andrea Krizsán and Conny Roggeband CONTENTS Acknowledgements vi List of Contributors vii Preface 1 Introduction: Mapping the Gendered Implications of Democratic Backsliding in the Countries of the CEE Region 4 Andrea Krizsán and Conny Roggeband The Impact of Neoconservative Activism on Gender Policies and the Women’s Movement in Croatia 31 Leda Sutlović Politicizing Gender Equality and Women’s Movement Reactions to It in Hungary 78 Andrea Krizsán and Andrea Sebestyén “Good Change” and Better Activism: Feminist Responses to Backsliding Gender Policies in Poland 120 Marianna Szczygielska The Convoluted Gender Policy Processes in Romania: Institutional Disarray and Activist Resilience 161 Ana Chiriţoiu The Challenge to Gender Democracy 200 Conny Roggeband and Andrea Krizsán v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Center for Policy Studies at the Central European University was the host of the TRANSCRISIS project1, and as such, provided institutional anchor to the doctoral researchers who participated in the book. The CEU CPS team and resources also supported the process of publication including typeset, design and language editing where needed. We would like to express our gratitude for the supportive and intellectually stimulating environment provided by the CPS. We also thank the Program Transnational Configurations, Conflict and Governance of the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research based in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam, for funding the research of Andrea Sebestyén. In the process several people provided input to our thinking about the conceptual framework and about making sense of often very controversial data. Violetta Zentai worked together with Krizsán in the TRANSCRISIS project and contributed important ideas to some of the initial thinking. We received important feedback in various conferences from Isabelle Engeli, Hege Skjeie, Mieke Verloo, Sarah Childs, Andrea Spehar, Mary Bernstein, among others. We would particularly like to thank participants of the CEU Workshop on Activism at a Time of Backslide: Feminist and LGBTQ Responses to Opposition to Gender and Sexual Equality in May 10-11, 2018, who provided us not only with good comments but also with am insightful intellectual environment for refining some of our thoughts. Finally, we are grateful for the excellent editorial work provided by Agostina Allori and Borbala Varga at the Center for Policy Studies. 1 The TransCrisis project was funded under the European Commission’s Horizon2020 programme call H2020-Euro-Society-2014. vi LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Ana Chirițoiu is a PhD candidate in Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University in Budapest. Her research tackles the politics of kinship in a Roma settlement in Romania. She has previously worked for a Roma-rights organisation in Bucharest and conducted research on ethnic politics in various locations in Romania. Andrea Krizsán is a Research Fellow at the Center for Policy Studies, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. Her research focuses on the comparative politics of gender inequality, violence against women and intersectionality in Central and Eastern Europe. Conny Roggeband is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science of the University of Amsterdam. Her research interests include gender mainstreaming and equality policies, gender-based violence, social movements, and transnational feminist networking. Andrea Sebestyén is a PhD candidate in Law at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Her research brings together (critical) legal and gender studies in analyzing Hungarian jurisprudence from a feminist perspective. She uses the method of critical discourse analysis for a better understanding of criminal judgments in violence against women cases. Her publications are mainly on sexual harassment at the workplace. Leda Sutlović is a PhD candidate and a lecturer at the Department of Political Science University of Vienna. She holds an MA from Central European University and a degree from University of Zagreb in Political vii Science. Her thesis project focuses on (post)socialist transformations of Croatian gender policies, bringing together the approach of discursive and historical institutionalism with the role of knowledge and ideas in politics. Marianna Szczygielska is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Gender Studies at Central European University in Budapest. Marianna’s doctoral project examined how the concepts of nature, animality, and humanness have been and continue to be constructed