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The Discursive Construction of Europeanisation as a Source of Resentment: A Comparative Study of Populist Leaders in Hungary and Poland

Ostojic, Dario LU and Szacht, Szymon Piotr LU (2026) STVK12 20261
Department of Political Science
Abstract (Swedish)
Europeanisation refers to a process through which member states undergo social, economic and political changes to its domestic institutions that align them with EU norms and rules. In essence, it involves not only the adoption of EU policies, laws and regulations, but also incorporates EU governance structures and practices into the logic of domestic institutions. Following the EU’s largest enlargement to date in 2004, countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) became increasingly exposed to this process, which brought with it its benefits, but also its drawbacks. Existing research has extensively examined the challenges of this process, by trying to establish a correlation between Europeanisation and populist backlash. However, few... (More)
Europeanisation refers to a process through which member states undergo social, economic and political changes to its domestic institutions that align them with EU norms and rules. In essence, it involves not only the adoption of EU policies, laws and regulations, but also incorporates EU governance structures and practices into the logic of domestic institutions. Following the EU’s largest enlargement to date in 2004, countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) became increasingly exposed to this process, which brought with it its benefits, but also its drawbacks. Existing research has extensively examined the challenges of this process, by trying to establish a correlation between Europeanisation and populist backlash. However, few studies have took this examination further and tried to systematically analyse the discursive mechanisms through which populist leaders in CEE states, most notably Poland and Hungary, have constructed Europeanisation as a threat. Even fewer studies have compared Hungary’s and Poland’s relationship with Europeanisation through a unified postfunctionalist framework that incorporates with it a dependency theory, as unequal power dynamics are central to this relationship. This is precisely what this research aims to examine. By addressing this gap, the study has found that populist leaders in both countries have deployed a strikingly coordinated rhetorical strategy, exploiting a shared resentment which is rooted in Europeanisation’s implicit positioning of Central Europeans as permanent imitators of a “superior” Western model of governance. (Less)
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author
Ostojic, Dario LU and Szacht, Szymon Piotr LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK12 20261
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Europeanisation, Central and Eastern Europe, Hungary, Poland, Rule of Law, National Sovereignty, Populism, Populist backlash, Core-Periphery, Post-Functionalism, Dependency Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis
language
English
id
9227561
date added to LUP
2026-06-16 15:09:04
date last changed
2026-06-16 15:09:04
@misc{9227561,
  abstract     = {{Europeanisation refers to a process through which member states undergo social, economic and political changes to its domestic institutions that align them with EU norms and rules. In essence, it involves not only the adoption of EU policies, laws and regulations, but also incorporates EU governance structures and practices into the logic of domestic institutions. Following the EU’s largest enlargement to date in 2004, countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) became increasingly exposed to this process, which brought with it its benefits, but also its drawbacks. Existing research has extensively examined the challenges of this process, by trying to establish a correlation between Europeanisation and populist backlash. However, few studies have took this examination further and tried to systematically analyse the discursive mechanisms through which populist leaders in CEE states, most notably Poland and Hungary, have constructed Europeanisation as a threat. Even fewer studies have compared Hungary’s and Poland’s relationship with Europeanisation through a unified postfunctionalist framework that incorporates with it a dependency theory, as unequal power dynamics are central to this relationship. This is precisely what this research aims to examine. By addressing this gap, the study has found that populist leaders in both countries have deployed a strikingly coordinated rhetorical strategy, exploiting a shared resentment which is rooted in Europeanisation’s implicit positioning of Central Europeans as permanent imitators of a “superior” Western model of governance.}},
  author       = {{Ostojic, Dario and Szacht, Szymon Piotr}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Discursive Construction of Europeanisation as a Source of Resentment: A Comparative Study of Populist Leaders in Hungary and Poland}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}