RevDem Podcast · Review of Democracy

EU Research Spotlight: Nils-Christian Bormann on Violence, Elites, and Democratic Stability

·43 min·2 clips

Bormann says right-wing extremist violence can increase support for the same right-wing extremists.

The starting point is democratic danger. Kardos introduces a relatively new EU-funded research series, then places the DANGER project inside a blunt problem: democracies under stress, angry politics, elite reaction, and the institutions left to absorb the shock. The comparison stays historical on purpose. Interwar European democracies matter here because many saw violence before sliding into dictatorship or authoritarian rule. The present is never far away. The guest connects that past to European party systems now, where older governing formulas often fail to produce stable majorities. The research sounds painstaking. He talks through archive work, machine-readable newspaper searches, close newspaper reading, and survey material where it exists. Some cases cooperate; others do not. Germany, with thirteen years of material, is harder to handle than a shorter two-year case. Scandinavia gets set aside for a practical reason: the existing literature suggested too little violence there for the same mechanism to be useful. Then the conversation turns to elites. What do they do when violence enters politics? What coalitions do they build? That question lands in the present through Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, all examples of party systems under pressure. Keeping radicals out can force broad coalitions when center-right or center-left arrangements no longer work. The interwar echo is plain enough: fragmented party systems in Eastern Europe, fascist challenges, and perceived communist threats give the project its historical test cases. Kardos closes by bringing it back to how political elites and citizens might defend democratic institutions now.

As heard by us

How elite coalitions and violence shape democracy under pressure.

The piece connects democratic fragility to coalition behavior and elite response, and it is strongest when it stays close to the DANGER project’s archives, newspapers, and cross-country scope.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If coalition arithmetic and democratic stress fascinate you, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from RevDem Podcast