Bs sae The Role of European Union and Democratic Change in Central and Eastern Europe Since 1989 Introduction: The European Union has been a key actor in promoting democra- tization and providing assistance to encourage political change in that direction, The EU has been Mukesh Shankar| one of the most active extemal Bharati | actors in the promotion of democ- Research Scholar] racy towards third-States after INU, Delhi] demise of communism in Cen- tral-Eastem Europe, all transitional countries applied for EU membership and the EU’s conditionalities set in, The EU's democratisation agenda is believed to have had positively influenced the democratisation process that countries of Central and Eastem Europe embarked since the 1990s. This chapter details EU's democratisation agenda, how this agenda was pur- sued and applied to third countries, Inthe first section a general understanding of what democracy stands for is discussed, Democracy and Democratisation Democracy is the form of government in which citi- zens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Democracy allows citizens to participate equally either directly or through elected representa- tives in the proposal, development, and creation of laws and other provisions. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination. The minimal definition of democracy suggests that such aregime has, at least, the following: universal, adult suffrage; recurring free competitive and fair elec- tions; more than one political party; and more than one source ofinformation. Freedom and equality are the two main democratic ideals, and itis obvious that they are central to a normative definition of quality democracy. Dahl, Marshall and numerous other scholars have provided many suggestions concerning which essential rights should be promoted in democ- racies, For most part, these rights can be grouped under political rights, civil sights or social rights. Political rights include the right to vote, the night for political leaders to compete for electoral support, and the right to be elected to public office. A good pat of democratization studies focuses primarily on the formal institutionalization of democracy in terms of constitution, regular elections, and the formation of a party system and a judiciary, there is a widespread recognition that cultural matters, i.e. questions of the popular legitimacy of democratic institutions and the normative commitment of the public and elites to democracy, cannot be excluded from analysis. In the case of the post-communist countries, formal institu- tion-building has been understood as having been ac- complished relatively quickly, while the emergence of amatching political culture is deemed more prob- lematic, It is generally argued thet the institutional, formal prerequisites for democracy have generally been fulfilled in the ten CEECs under consideration, the former communist countries now part of the Eu- ropean Union, it is more difficult to assess in such a clear manner the level of consolidation of democratic behaviour, or of the fledgling democratic political culture, that has been attained. A ‘genuine demo- cratic political culture’ according to democratiza- tion theorists, ‘embodies high levels of interpersonal trust, a readiness to deal with political conflict through compromise rather than compulsion or vio- lence, and acceptance of the legitimacy of democratic institutions, The conception of political culture in the study of democratization in Central and Eastern Europe draws principally on the classical understand- ing of ‘civie culture? or political culture as it emerged from the classical work of Almond and Verba, and those that have been working in this vein, A demo- cratic regime is consolidated when a strong majority of public opinion holds the belief that democratic pro- cedures and institutions are the most appropriate way to govern collective life in a society such as theirs and ‘when the support for anti-system alternatives is quite small or more or less isolated from the pro-democra- tic forces. ‘The outcome of democratic consolidation is a system that should meet certain procedural requirements, such as the provision of regular elections and institu- tional mechanisms that check executive power, as well as the guarantee of human rights and evolution towards a remaking of political culture that is sup- portive of democratic political life To verify the claim that a variety of democratic discourses is indeed possible, and likely to be ofim-Bs eae portance for the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, briefly reviewing various such un- derstandings of the relation between politics and cul- ture as they have emerged in the debate on democracy in political theory will be useful. The re- view will not only bring forth a diversity of possible understandings of democracy but will also further give emphasis to the points made above regarding the necessary suitable nature of democracy, its grounding ina dual rather than a singular imaginary, and the al- ways existing potential for innovation and change. This was mamnly in the name of a free civil society and subjective rights tht the grip of the post-totali- tarian states on societies was contested, In Central and Easter Europe the rebellious movements of the late 1980s demanded pluralist liberal democracies and supported their demands by referring to lists of rights in existing constitutions and intemational human rights standards, The beginning of the 1989 revolutions and democratization trajectories in coun- tries such as Poland and Hungary bears this out, In the Hungarian negotiated revolution in particular; there was a strong insistence on ‘Legal continuity’ and the rule of law. The post-1989 era, the discourse of individual rights, negative freedom, and the control of state power was important as a leading liberal-de- mocratic discourse in the political transformations in the region and constituted the core of the ‘return-to- Europe’ strategy as well as of the European Union’s enlargement project, In a foundational way, the em- phasis on constitutionalism and basic human rights ‘was enshrined in constitutional documents through- out the region, and in this way the democratization processes conformed to the emerging dominance of a global normative political culture of rights and the rule of law, A persistent commitment to liberal democracy in Central and Eastern Europe but also that the idea and understanding of democracy cannot be reduced to this ‘minimal’ commitment, A minimal morality is what provided a good part of the critical thrust against totalitarianism, and has also importantly informed the institutional design of democracy after 1989. In the Central and Eastern European context, it might be ar- gued that the minimal, universal ‘moral code? con- sists of a contemporary — more or less global consensus on a liberal set of moral values, which form the basis of constitutional systems, The ethics of democracy can be seen as orientating principles in two ways: in a normative sense as a guide to what is to be valued in a democratic regime and in a cogni- tive sense as a structuring principle of democratic dis- course, 1,e., defining which political aspects are rele- vant for realizing a democratic regime A fifth ethic could, for instance, be the ‘ethic of distributive jus- tice’ based on the priority of substantive, socio-eco- nomic equality, The suggestion is that these democratic ethics are analytical ideal-types of modes of justification that will not be found in any pure sense in ‘actually existing’ democratic discourses, but rather in distinct combinations and hybrid ways, and such ethics will be hierarchies or ordered in dis- tinct ways in particular discourses, and combined with other justificatory Ideas, Accession and Democracy ‘The EU adopted enlargement policies to include many states in the emerging markets of CEE. It ex- panded in the spring of 2004 to include 10 more countries, eight of which are CEECs: Poland, Hun- gary, the Czech Republic, Fstonia, Slovenia, Slova- Jaa, Latvia and Lithuania, The EU underwent another expansion in 2007 to include Romania and Bulgaria, Two main arguments exist concerning democratiza- tion and EU membership, The first argument pro- poses that integration produces a democratic deficit at the national level, the argues that since countries had insufficient time to pass important EU legislation at the state level, many pieces of EU legislation were enacted by announcement, rather than parliamentary procedure, leaving little room for manoeuvre and cre- ating a decrease in the level of democracy since the onset of EU candidacy. And second argument sug- gests that accession into the EU provides political sta- bility to its members, allowing transitional democracies to strengthen their domestic democratic institutions, Democratic institutions became stronger in the CEECs during their accession into the EU mainly because information became more transpar~ ent, unlike during communist rule, and because the elites are less likely to cheat on domestic reforms, ‘Thus, integration is considered a positive influence in the development and maintenance of democratic institutions, The EU requires members and candi- dates to implement market economies and stable democracies through the Copenhagen criteria, but it does not specify at what levels, The Accession Treaties include a provision based on the Treaty on the European Union and emphasized in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which states that ‘the political criteria require applicant States to ensure the stability of institutions guaran- teeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the respect for and protection of minorities, Find the @)Bs ae unspecified evel of democracy’ in the Copenhagen criteria to be problematic because it can lead to abi- ased selection of Prospective members. Democracy Promotion by EU ‘The European Commission opines and reports in the time period of 1997-2003 for Slovakia, and 1997- 2005 for Bulgaria and Romania, In 1997 the Com- mission issued its first opinion on the three countries’ membership applications, In 2003 the monitoring of Slovakia effectively ended as it became amember of the EU the following year. After 2005 the Commis- sion reports for Romania and Bulgaria narrowed their focus towards the functioning of the judiciary and the fight against corruption and organized crime and made little mention of political criteria and assessing the Commission’s judgements regarding both insti- tutional dimensions and discussing each feature of consensus democracy in tum, EU democracy promotion generally and specifically in the context of enlargement has until recently been aneglected theoretical subject; yet an apparent pref erence for the consensus model and a consistent push for its realization have underpinned the process since the beginning of the Copenhagen Criteria and politi- cal conditionality. The Commission's opinions and reports did not simply settle for the ‘stability of insti- tutions guaranteeing democracy’, Without ever stat- ing this intention explicitly, the Commission pushed for institutions securing political power-sharing within cabinets and parliaments, ruling political par- ties and the opposition, civil society actors, central and local government, political institutions, and courts, It worked to ensure that power was not con- centrated in the hands of a simple majority, and that decision-making included as many stakeholders as possible. To maintain that no democratic theory lay behind this choice, and that the Commission was ag- nostic about what type of democracy should charac- terize the new Europe, emerges as an invalid position. One of the greatest paradoxes in EU democracy pro- motion in the context of enlargement is the contra- diction between detail and ambiguity, On the one hand, the EU applies a checklist approach to demo- cratic conditionality in which accession negotiations are tied to how well states ‘tick the boxes’ in compre- hensive Commission guidance documents. On the other hand, the political accession criteria remain vague and fail to depict what the EU really wants from new members when it comes to the functioning oftheir democracies, As suggested above, this ambi- guity may have been intentional, and could theoreti- cally be an asset for the EU by allowing it to avoid one-size-fits-all approaches without appearing to dis- criminate, It could have addressed the evident need for democracy promotion to be contextually embed- ded and tailored to fit domestic circumstances in can- didate countries, Instead, it was transformed into the implicit universal promotion of a specific democracy model whose suitability for the countries in question remains highly debatable Yet it makes sense that EU institutions would encour- age the development of polities that display a broad consensus backing the reform process required for accession; that will fit easily into the consensual structures of the BU itself; and that have internalized the norms of a consensual Europe, The bias in the EU’s democracy promotion to candidate countries may well be aresult of the internalization of consen- sus democracy as part of the EU’s own normative framework, the presence of majoritarian member states notwithstanding, EU affects amuch broader spectrum of areas of gov- emance and institutions than any other regional or global organization active in Europe. Compared to the Council of Europe or NATO, the EU is a system of governance that covers gradually more large num- ber of policy areas and affects nearly all aspects of the governance of its member states. In contrast to NATO, the EU offers not only a form of security but also especially economic as well as political benefits to the states that join it, This makes the European Union very important for its existing member states and a strong pole of attraction for candidate members, ‘Another important point related to this is that the Eu- ropean Union has dealt with applications for mem- bership in a very distinctive way. In contrast to the Council of Europe, the EU elevates membership as the final goal, as the reward for ac- cession states’ efforts to advance their transforma- tions, making it conditional on specified achievements that promote a certain level of eventual homogeneity among the Union’s members. It has been in the long process of the preparation for entry of the post-communist states of central and Eastern Europe that the EU has developed what tuned out to be a successful model of democracy promotion through integration, The political criteria that origi- nally in Copenhagen dealt ‘only’ with the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy and human and minority rights came to include the strengthening of ®Bs ae state capacity and the independence of judiciaries, the pursuit of anti-corruption measures and the mainte- nance and strengthening of a whole range of both human and minonity rights, ‘These rights encompassed not just civil and political but also economic, social and cultural rights, With its extensive demands for a broader social inclusion of disadvantaged groups, such as the Roma people, as well as its meticulous attention to administrative and judicial concems, the EU has shifted decisively into areas of substantive democracy, This is in itself sig- nificant, but it has not consciously followed any clear conception of liberal democracy, the reason for this being that the commission’s thinking evolved in a way that may be described as bureaucratic incremen- talism based on the checklist approach, ‘The success of the EU in supporting the post-com- munist states of Central and Eastem Europe in con- solidating their democracies suggests that an integration pattem has been emerging as an example of successful democracy promotion, The pull of the European Union as a successful community of pros- perous states evolving into a multilevel system of governance, in which amultiplicity of state and non- state actors interact in the process of governing, seems indisputable, The final, historic shift from pre- accession integration into full-scale integration as a member state qualified only by short-term transition periods- was decisive for securing the deeper effects of democracy promotion in post-communist states that achieve this. ‘An Emphasis on Democratization ‘The democratization of the former communist coun- tries in Central and Eastern Europe has been predom- inantly understood as a process concerning the institutionalization of political communities based on civic and political rights and the rule of law, Euro- pean Union has actively promoted this process by means ofits enlargement project based on pre-acces- sion conditionality. In this, the EU has emphasized the protection of individual, human rights against the interference of potentially oppressive states. In con- comitance, and largely in line with the emphasis on civic and political nghts, the EU has strongly under- lined the importance of minority rights, understood as the protection of sub-national groups from the in- terference of majority-dominated states, The EU makes it plain that it intends to uphold its policy of curtailing relations with governments engaged in vi- lations of human rights and democracy standards, including by making use of targeted sanctions and other policy measures specifying that here it takes such measures, it will not only uphold but strengthen further its support to civil society, The restriction of the definition of democracy to minimalist criteriahas implications for both the goal of activities that fall under the rubric of democracy promotion, and for the methods with which these goals can be legitimately pursued, The prioritization of minimalist goals mar- ginalizes other possible configurations of democracy, in relation to both social and economic goals and ac- tors, for example, Most importantly, it relegates the pursuit of these other features of democracy eco- nomic rights, social justice, etc On Ist January 2007 the accession of Bulgaria and Romania completed the enlargement of the European Union to include ten Central and Eastem European (CEE) states, These countries had also become NATO members, This is generally perceived as a di- rect consequence of the democratization process ini- tiated by the fall of communism in the region, Ensuing change made CEE countries fully compati- ble with their Atlantic neighbours and allowed acces- sion to the Western community it is logical to see democratization as a precondition to EU and NATO. accession, In the early 1990s only Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary seemed to have consolidating democracies, Nevertheless, continuing intemational interaction allowed further diffusion and assimilation of Wester democratic norms and values. Romania ‘was one of the states that was part of intemational structures diffusing democratic noms and values: the Conference (later Organization) for Security and Co- operation in Europe (CSCE/OSCE); the European Union's Europe Agreements; and NATO's Partner- ship for Peace, Under their influence, Romanian state and societies experienced a progressive identity change that finally led to the overthrow of the author- itarian regimes and allowed Bucharest and Bratislava to adopt pro-Western, democratic trajectories, CEE and Government One of the features of the CEE democracies is that elections have often thrown up governing coalitions, Coalition politics is a vital indicator of the ability of new democratic elites for compromise and consensus formation, with obvious implications for the prospects of democratic consolidation. In the perti- nent case of Slovakia, there are limits to applying the ideological criterion, while other dimensions of po- litical space, including the ethnic, should be taken @Bs sae into consideration - which is true for many post-com- munist democracies, In other words, parallel trans- formations other than political democratization have a bearing on coalition politics; and these include na- tion-building as well as economic system change. ‘The link between coalition behaviour and the democ- ratization process, highlighted by these transition coalitions, Coalitions are now a regular pattern of government formation and maintenance there, not least because the prevalence of proportional repre- sentation electoral systems makes this likely. There are even special legal regulations governing electoral coalitions, usually involving a different parliamentary threshold from other parties, as in Poland and the Czech Republic. Parliamentary coalitions are also a feature of the political landscape in some countries, such as the Czech Republic, where the minority gov- ernment of the Social Democrats under Milos Zeman has functioned on the basis of the ‘opposition agree- ment? of 1998 whereby the main opposition party, the Civic Democratic Party, ‘Tuming to new democracies, it soon becomes evident that many of the above-mentioned dimensions of coalitional behaviour are present. Among new parlia- mentary democracies in Central and Eastern Europe one can readily observe such coelitional features as institutional procedures, conflict-management mech- anisms, minority governments and legislative coali- tions as well as the usual business of majority-building, power-seeking and policy pursuit But the differences from established democracies, such as those in Wester Europe, relate especially to the broader dimensions of coalition behaviour, New party actors come and go; ideologies may take time to crystallize; and, very probably, parties are less uni- tary actors than would normally be the case in older parliamentary democracies, The parallel processes of economic transformation and nation- and state-build- ing alongside democratization are bound to have all lands of repercussions on coalition behaviour and are a classic example of environmental factors. Particu- larly if minorities are present, as is the case in many Central and East European countries and their role into the region, Therefore, how coalitions handle eth- nic questions is a telling matter with implications for democratic stability. The role of ethnic parties is of particular interest in this context, In other words, there may be strong cleavages apart from the standard socio-economic politics. Institutional Dynamics Systemic change across CEE was accompanied by putting constitutions in place which in tum laid the foundation of political institutions, In most CEE countries the institutions of prime minister and pres- ident were in confrontation, There can be litle doubt that most presidential-prime ministerial disputes are in essence struggles over power, Presidents seek to make full use of what they see as their legel prerog- atives, which they interpret broadly and often seek to expand, Prime ministers resist what they see as resi- dential encroachment and contest ambiguous consti- tutional turf, often explicitly complaining that the president has exceeded his legal authority or at least violated what they see as the norms of an appropriate presidential role. Frictions based on differences in personality and leadership style often reinforce these conflicting interpretations of the extent of the presi- dent’s authority, For example, Polish governments had fought over their insistence that the ministries of foreign affairs, defence, and intemal affairs were “presidential” offices, even though the constitution requires only that the prime minister “consult” with the president before filling them. Slovak president Kovac’s rejection of Prime Minister Meciar’s ap- pointe as privatization minister, following Kovac’s reluctant acquiescence in two earlier dismissals of of- ficials, deepened the alienation between the two ex- ecutives, Conclusion EU plays an important role in the democratisation process of the post-Soviet Eastern neighbours, as the current developments in Ukraine, Moldova and Geor- gia show, orin the conflict-settling and democratisa- tion of the Western Balkans, Yet these countries may be able to hold the course of transition and democra- tisation reforms only if they have real prospects for EU membership, and they know for sure that one day they will be able to step through the European Union works on many fields like democratic promotion, people rights, economic partnership, peace building, human development, and environment issues, ‘Through enlargement process CEE countries became part of EU in 2004 and in 2007, The prospect of EU membership undoubtedly played a significant role European door. ‘The study of European Union's impact on democra- tisation in Romania was an attempt to assess the ef- fectiveness of external actors like EU in promoting democracy. In 1989 Romania like other countries of the region experienced systemic change, Coming out @Bsc wae of the communist bloc these states chose to follow the Western political and economic model. ‘Return to Europe’ was the sentiment that guided the foreign policy of these states, Western Europe and its institu- tions like the European Union in turn also readied it- self for this eventuality, To make sure that these states made a complete break with the past and sustained their democratic thrust, West European states made membership in institutions like EU conditional, the Copenhagen criteria as they are commonly known as References: 1, Leonardo Morlino, “What is a ‘good’ democ- racy”? Democratization, 11(5) (2004), 10-32 (p.15), 2. Geoffery Pridham and Vanhanen, Democratization in Baste Europe, domestic and intemational per- spectives,(London; Rutledge 1994), p.120 3, Paul Blokker, “Multiple democracies: political cultures and democratic variety in post-enlarge- ment Europe”, Contemporary Politics, 14(2) (2008), 161-178(p.168) 4, Meredith-Joy Petersheim, “The European Union and Consolidating Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe”, Journal of European Integration, 34(1) (2012), 75-91 (pp. 77-78). 5. Katrine Haukenes & Annette Freyberg-Inan (2012): Enforcing consensus? The hidden bias in E} promotion in Central and Faster Europe Democra- tization, DOI:10.1080/13510347.2012.689977 6. Percy B.Lehning and Albert Weale, Citizenship, democracy and justice in the new Europe, ( London and New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 20-25 7. Antoaneta Dimitrova Associate Professor & Geof- frey Pridham, Professor of European International ac- tors and democracy promotion in central and Eastern Europe: the integration model and its limits, Democ- ratization, 11(5) (2004), 91-112 (pp. 94-98). 8. Antoaneta Dimitrova & Geoffrey Pridham, “In- ternational actors and democracy promotion in central and eastern Europe: the integration model limits”, Democratization, 11(5) (2004), 91- 112 (pp.102-105), 9, Paul Blokker, “Rights, Identities and Democracy in an Enlarged European Union”, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, (9:3) (2008 10. 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Education scheme for ST Girls The Ministry of Tribal Affairs implements a Central Sector scheme of “Strengthening Ed- ucation among ST Girls in Low Literacy Dis- tricts" for Tribal Girls throughout the country, The scheme viz., “Strengthening Education among ST Girls in Low Literacy Districts" is exclusively for ST girls in 54 districts identi- fied in the country, where the ST population is 25% or more and ST female literacy rate is below 35% or its fractions, as per 2001 Cen- sus. The scheme is being implemented through voluntary organizatians/Non-Govern- mental Organizations and autonomous soci- eties/institutions of State Government/Union Territory Administration and aims at enhanc- ing the literacy rate of tribal girls, bridging the gap in literacy levels between the general fe- male population and tribal women, in order to enable them to participate effectively in and benefit from, socio-economic development An amount of 5093.60 lakhs was released under this scheme during the current financial year 2015-16. This information was given by Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Shri Jual Oram in a written reply in Lok Sabha on 14 March, 2016, Report : PIB