About me

Elisabeth Bakke


Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo.

Former head of the master program in Peace and Conflict Studies (PECOS).

Former head of the bachelor program in European Studies.

Teaching: nationalism, European politics, European Union. 

Dr. Polit. from University of Oslo.

Former PR manager and journalist.


Originally from Vågå.


Research interests: nations and nationalism, Czechoslovakism, Czech and Slovak politics, democracy, democratization and democratic backsliding, parties, party systems and parliamentary elites.

The EU’s Enfants Terribles: 

Democratic backsliding in Central Europe since 2010

Featured

research

In the academic literature, Hungary and Poland are often cited as paradigmatic cases of democratic backsliding. However, as the backsliding narrative gained traction, the term has been applied to the rest of the post-communist region, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We suggest that this diagnosis is in part based on conceptual stretching, and set out to rescue the concept as an analytical tool. We then assess the extent of backsliding in the four Visegrád countries, explaining backsliding (and the relative lack of it) in terms of motive, opportunity, and the strength or weakness of opposing or constraining forces. We conclude that the situation is not as desperate as some commentators would have it: democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland was contingent on a few exceptional factors, and EU leaders therefore need not be paralysed by the fear of contagion when they contemplate forceful action against backsliding member states.

PUBLICATIONS


See also publications on Cristin,

on Research gate, and on Academia. 

Nationalism


Bakke, Elisabeth (2022). Hroch's concept of nationally relevant conflicts of interest, part of Bakke, E., Breuilly, J., Hutchinson, J., Kolář, P., Kriel, M., Leerssen, J., Malečková, J., Malešević, S., Řezník, M., Núñez Seixas, X. M., Šima, K., & Storm, E. (2022). Symposium for Miroslav Hroch. Nations and Nationalism, 1– 23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12851.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2021). Conceptions of Czechoslovakism among Czech Politicians in Government Inauguration Debates 1918–1938. In Adam Hudek, Michal Kopeček & Jan Mervart (eds.). Czechoslovakism. Abingdon: Routledge.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003205234-5


Bakke, Elisabeth (2011). Czechoslovakism in Slovak history. In Mikuláš Teich, Dušan Kováč & Martin D. Brown (ed.), Slovakia in History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2009).  Fløyelsskilsmissa i Tsjekkoslovakia. In Raino Malnes (ed.), Prekær politikk. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2005). The Autonomy Discourse in Parliamentary Debates during the First Czechoslovak Republic and after the Velvet Revolution. In Slovakia (vol. XXXVIII), published by The Slovak League of America (discontinued).


Bakke, Elisabeth (2004). The making of Czechoslovakism in the First Republic. In Martin Schulze Wessel (ed). Loyalitäten im polyethnischen, multikonfessionellen Staat: Die Erste Tschechoslowakische Republik 1918–1938. München: Collegium Carolinum.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2002). The principle of national self-determination in Czechoslovak Consti­tutions 1920–1992, Central European Political Science Review, (3) 10.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2001). Språk og nasjonsforming i Noreg i eit europeisk perspektiv. In Elisabeth Bakke & Håvard Teigen (ed.). Kampen for språket. Oslo: Samlaget.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2000): How voluntary is national identity? Conference paper, the 8. National Political Science Conference, Tromsø 2000.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2000). Tomáš G. Masaryk og det tsjekkiske spørsmål. In Nordisk Østforum 2:  5–17.


Bakke, Elisabeth (1999). Čechoslovakizmus v školských učebniciach (1918–1938). [Czecho­slovakism in school textbooks]. Historický časopis, Bratislava (47) 2: 233–253.


Bakke, Elisabeth (1999). Doomed to failure? The Czechoslovak nation project and the Slovak autonomist reaction 1919–1938. Oslo: Series of dissertations submitted to the Depart­ment of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo, No. 11/99.


Democracy


Bakke, Elisabeth & Nick Sitter (2022). The EU’s Enfants Terribles: Democratic backsliding in Central Europe since 2010. Perspectives on Politics (20) 1: 22–37. [Open access].

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592720001292


Sitter, Nick & Elisabeth Bakke (2019). Democratic Backsliding in the European Union. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics.

DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1476


Bakke, Elisabeth (2015). Demokrati i det postkommunistiske Europa. In Raino Malnes & Dag Einar Thorsen (ed.), Demokratiet – historien og ideene. Oslo: Dreyer.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2015). Fløyelsrevolusjonen i 1989 – ingen reprise på Praha-våren. Nordisk Østforum (29) 2: 117–141.


Bakke, Elisabeth & Ingo Peters (2011). Introduction: The 1989 ‘Revolutions’ and Their Effects 20 Years down the Road. In Elisabeth Bakke & Ingo Peters (eds). 20 Years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Transitions, State Break-Up and Democratic Politics in Central Europe and Germany. Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag.


Miscellaneous


Heidar, Knut, Einar Berntzen & Elisabeth Bakke (ed.) (2013).Politikk i Europa. Partier, regjeringsmakt, styreform. Oslo: Universitetsfolaget.


Bakke, Elisabeth (ed.) (2006).Sentral-Europa og Baltikum etter 1989. Oslo: Samlaget.


Hroch, Miroslav; Helena Kadecková & Elisabeth Bakke (2005). Dějiny Norska. Praha: Lidové noviny.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2004). Defenestrasjon – ein tsjekkisk politisk tradisjon? Nordisk Østforum, 2: 145–162.


Bakkeová, Elisabeth (2002). Lidová hlasování o norském členství v EF (EU) [Referenda on Norwegian membership in the EEC (EU)]. In Mezinárodní politika XXVI (2): 12–14.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2001). Kva(r) er Sentral-Europa? In Harald Baldersheim & Knut Heidar (ed.): Statsvitenskapelige utsyn. Kristiansand S: Høyskoleforlaget.


Bakke, Elisabeth (1995). Mot ein europeisk identitet? Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning 4: 467–491.


Bakke, Elisabeth (1995). Towards a European Identity? Oslo: ARENA-paper no. 10. 


Parties and elites


Bakke, Elisabeth (2022). New, but not more diverse? The effect of new parties on the social bias of the Czech parliamentary elite since 2010, Czech Journal of Political Science, 3, 2022: 334–356.

DOI: 10.5817/PC2022 -3-362


Bakke, Elisabeth (2022). Czech politics at a crossroads? In Sabrina P. Ramet, Vladimir Đorđević & Christine M. Hassenstab (eds.). Civic and Uncivic Values in the Czech Republic. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91225-3_3


Bakke, Elisabeth & Folkestad, Bjarte (2021). Representasjon i nye storkommunar: Forgubbing og sentrumsdominans eller status quo? In Jo Saglie, Signe Boch Segaard & Dag Arne Christensen (eds.). Lokalvalget 2019. Nye kommuner – nye valg? Cappelen Damm Akademisk. [Open access]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.134.ch8.


Bakke, Elisabeth & Nick Sitter (2021). Each unhappy in its own way? The rise and fall of Social Democracy in the Visegrád countries since 1989. In Nik Brandal, Øivind Bratberg & Dag Einar Thorsen (eds). Social Democracy in the 21st Century (Comparative Social Research vol. 35, Emerald Publishing Limited, 37–68).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-631020210000035003


Bakke, Elisabeth (2020). It’s my generation, baby! How different are (new) parties in Slovakia in terms of descriptive representation? Czech Journal of Political Science 3, 2020: 353–371. DOI: 10.5817/PC2020-3-353


Bakke, Elisabeth (2019). Etter kommunereformen: partiorganisering og nominasjon i "nye Asker". In Elin H. Allern, Jo Saglie & Øyvind Østerud (eds.). Makt og opposisjon. De politiske partiene som demokratisk paradoks. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.


Bakke, Elisabeth  (2016). Tsjekkia: Business as usual?  In Raino Malnes (red.). Velkommen til statsvitenskap. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.


Bakke, Elisabeth &Nick Sitter (2015). Where do parties go when they die? The fate of failed parties in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary 1992–2013. East European Politics (31) 1: 1–22.


Bakke, Elisabeth & Nick Sitter (2013). Why Do Parties Fail? Cleavages, Government Fatigue and Electoral Failure in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary 1992–2012. East European Politics (29) 2: 208–225.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2012). Why are there so few female MPs in Slovak parliaments? In Harald Baldersheim &Jozef Bátora (ed), The governance of small states in turbulent times. The exemplary cases of Norway and Slovakia. Opladen: Barbara Budrich.

Bakke, Elisabeth (2011). The Czech party system 20 years after the Velvet revolution. In Elisabeth Bakke & Ingo Peters (ed.). 20 Years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Transitions, State Break-Up and Democratic Politics in Central Europe and Germany. Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag.


Bakke, Elisabeth (2010). Central and East European party systems since 1989. In Sabrina P. Ramet (ed.), Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


Bakke, Elisabeth & Nick Sitter (2005). Patterns of Stability. Party Competition and Strategy in Central Europe since 1989. Party Politics, (11) 2: 243–265.