Conference: Precarious Constitutionalism – The Ambiguities of Liberal Orders and the Rise of Illiberalism in Central Europe and Latin America

06/10/2023

Date: October 12-13, 2023

Location: Vila Lanna, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague

Latin America and Central Europe are regions that share the experience of dictatorships, authoritarianism, strong modernizing states, rebellious civil societies and transitions to and from democracy.  Both regions were also part of the so-called third wave of democratization, which represented a time of hope for democracy and constitutionalism as a means of overcoming dictatorship and difficult history. Yet this period of democratizing constitutionalism, often through transplantations and adaptions from other constitutional models found elsewhere in the world, took place during the global rise of neoliberal economics and the Washington consensus with new political orders designed to increase the role of the market in the economy. The constitutional orders in these regions have undergone many upheavals in recent years, and the mob attack on the seats of the central constitutional institutions in Brazil in January this year is just one striking example.  

In both regions, the promises regarding economic, social, and cultural rights as well as participative and deliberative democratic models collided with economic models and political agendas placing their bets on the market as the key driver of growth and redistribution. Both regions have also experienced the return of right-wing politics in the last decade or more, accompanied in many cases by the rise of illiberal constitutionalism. But there are also crucial differences: the role and ambition of the so-called ’social constitutionalism‘ thriving in Latin America whereas almost non-existent in Central Europe

The conference seeks to explore these histories, while rejecting a black-and-white dichotomous perspective that portrays countries simply divided between liberal democrats and illiberal anti-democrats. In contrast we encourage papers that examine how the rise of illiberal concepts and practices emerged from the ambiguities of  liberal orders including the interlinkages of liberal economic reform programs with illiberal political practices and the non-democratic features inherent in liberal constitutional systems.

Download the program as PDF here.