Félicitations à Natasha Wunsch pour son HDR

Natasha Wunsch, Assistant Professor à Sciences Po, CEE et chercheuse senior à l’ETH Zurich, a soutenu le 4 avril 2023 auprès de l'ETH son habilitation à diriger des recherches (HDR) en science politique, intitulée “Democratic Commitment: Explaining Citizens’ Tolerance for Democratic Backsliding”.

Le jury était composé de :

• Frank Schimmelfennig, Professor of European Politics, ETH Zurich, garant et rapporteur
• Jennifer McCoy, Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University, rapporteure
• Dan Kelemen, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University, rapporteur
• Daniel Kübler, Professor for Democracy and Public Governance, University of Zurich, rapporteur

Résumé 

Why do citizens often fail to act as effective bulwarks against democratic backsliding? My habilitation claims that political culture is key to explaining the electoral success and enduring public support for authoritarian-leaning leaders despite their open violations of democratic standards. It posits that a lack of attitudinal consolidation around liberal democratic norms leaves important parts of the electorate vulnerable to buy-outs and illiberal appeals by political elites. The habilitation builds on extensive empirical material including focus groups and original survey data including two conjoint experiments in Poland and Hungary. Leveraging a mixed-methods design, it shows how, despite widespread generic support for democracy as a regime form, divergent understandings of the core principles of democracy persist among citizens in both countries. Political elites capitalize on the weakness of liberal democratic commitment by justifying their democratic violations in majoritarian or explicitly illiberal terms. Establishing the linkages between political culture and political behaviour, the habilitation demonstrates the crucial role citizens’ democratic attitudes play in enabling the deepening and entrenchment of democratic backsliding.