TY - JOUR AU - Rak , Joanna PY - 2021/12/31 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - The Sovereignty of the Visegrád Group Political Nations in 2008–2019: From Abusing Neo-Militant Democracy to Quasi-Militant Democracy JF - Parliamentary Studies JA - Parliamentary Studies VL - IS - 31 SE - Articles DO - 10.51740/ps.vi31.776 UR - https://journals.lnb.lt/parliamentary-studies/article/view/776 SP - 65–84 AB - <p>The&nbsp;article, by drawing on the&nbsp;theory of militant democracy and qualitative source analysis, focuses on the&nbsp;relation between the&nbsp;national law and militant democracy in the&nbsp;Visegrád&nbsp;Group countries&nbsp;(Hungary, the&nbsp;Czech&nbsp;Republic, Slovakia, and Poland) and the&nbsp;impact that it had on the&nbsp;sovereignty of these political nations in&nbsp;2008–2019. It is essential to&nbsp;understand what protective measures were used and which of them were targeted at protecting democratic social structures. The&nbsp;study shows the&nbsp;presence of neo- and quasi-militant democracy measures in the&nbsp;national legislation of each V4&nbsp;country. The&nbsp;neo-militant measures were outdated, since they concerned protection from ideas and political groups that were&nbsp;not widely supported in Europe. The&nbsp;regulations enforced did&nbsp;not protect the&nbsp;political nations from the&nbsp;rule of anti-democratic forces. They&nbsp;were insensitive to&nbsp;new populist groups and hybrid interferences. Quasi-militant measures were used to&nbsp;shape the&nbsp;political nations in a&nbsp;discretionary way and undermine their&nbsp;sovereignty. On the&nbsp;one hand, anti-democratic actors were considered enemies of democracy. On the&nbsp;other hand, the&nbsp;regulations in force led to the&nbsp;exclusion of democratic forces from the&nbsp;political scene. In other words, anyone could become an enemy of democracy if their views and actions did&nbsp;not fit in with the&nbsp;ruling parties’ political agendas or were clearly against their&nbsp;interests.</p> ER -