Political Science in Central European Democracies Under Pressure

Abstract

AbstractThe chapter examines the challenges that six Central European Democracies (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) have faced in the development of political science during the last three decades. We argue that political science as a new social science has gone through many structural reforms: it has acquired a relatively well-institutionalised position, gained autonomy and managed to form its identity. Nevertheless, its position is endangered by the erosion of its legitimacy.In this chapter, we show that political science as a new social science in the Central and Eastern Europe region has acquired a relatively stable position. The discipline has gained autonomy and managed to form its own identity, and has shown a capacity to cope with several challenges that have arisen. However, some of the structural reforms, including the commodification of higher education and the proliferation of political science at universities and other teaching institutions, have recently undermined the stability it had previously gained, as it progressively suffers from a loss of public recognition. We argue that the oversimplified, technocratic approaches of governments in recent years have impaired the legitimacy of the social sciences, and of political science in particular. This common trend is observable in all of the selected countries, albeit with certain variations from one country to another.