The workshop for students, researchers and early career practitioners was co-hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights and re:constitution.
On 26 November 2022, the Centre for Fundamental Rights and re:constitution co-hosted the workshop ‘Constitutional Governance: Authoritarian pushback and workable solutions’ at the Hertie School. The workshop was open to students, researchers, and early career practitioners with a strong interest in the topics of democratic backsliding and (re)emerging authoritarianism. It aimed at jointly reflecting on mechanisms that are employed either to facilitate or resist the erosion of rule of law and liberal constitutionalism on a global scale, drawing on examples from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In addition to offering comparative ways for understanding the origins, workings, and implications of these practices, the workshop also sought to distil lessons and workable solutions for tracing and tackling rule of law challenges through the means of constitutional governance and adjudication that could be applied beyond the CEE context.
Led by instructors Dr Ivo Gruev, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Fundamental Rights, Hertie School, and Dr Zuzana Vikarska, Assistant Professor at Masaryk University, nineteen students and practitioners, with diverse academic backgrounds and experiences, participated in the workshop.
The full day workshop was divided into three sessions. It was kicked off by Dr Gruev and Dr Vikarska with a historical and theoretical introduction to the toolkit of liberal constitutional governance focusing on the concept of the constitution and its historical origins and principles. It was followed by a discussion on how to identify and differentiate authoritarian threats by using the so-called ‘authoritarian playbook’ – a comparatively informed set of steps that (aspiring) autocrats may apply to cement themselves in power and thus undermine the principles of constitutional democracies.
The second session focused on specific examples and case studies from the CEE region provided by the instructors. Participants engaged in discussions to identify similar or other practices from the authoritarian playbook that are taking place in the national and regional contexts that they are familiar with, as well as ways in which the mechanisms and platforms of constitutional governance can be employed to resist authoritarian practices, illiberalism, and democratic backsliding.
In the final session, these findings were compared to identify a list of common challenges and potential solutions that cut across different topics and national context.