Dr. Emilija Tudzarovska Gjorgjievska, MA, MSc

My doctoral research investigated the causal linkages between the EU democratic legitimacy, the process of Europeanisation, and the crises of representative democracies in the field of anti-corruption. It examined the necessary conditions under which national parliaments and political parties can provide for democratic legitimation and act as institutional guardians of representative democracies in the service of citizens, as a final source of legitimate authority. The weak role of party democracy in the broader EU context, the role of the national parliaments and weak law enforcement, particularly evident in Central-Eastern Europe (CEE), suggest a gradual hollowing out of democracies. However, the mutual reinforcement of corruption and the hollowness of democracy have remained under-acknowledged in the broader neoliberal context. The reasons behind this are a few, starting with the thick conceptualisation of corruption, the specifics of the CEE countries concerning party democracy, the history of party cleavages, and transformation of state sovereignty under the process of Europeanisation. This research took a different approach and sets the premise that corruption, as an old and negative phenomenon, was introduced on a greater scale by the liberalisation and deregulation of the financial markets in the 1990s, and has taken root in the increased hollowing out of representative democracies. The historical preconditions of communist regimes and the specifics of the process of Europeanisation (EU enlargement; the post-1989 period; the nation-state transformation to an EU member state; the EU technocratic approach in managing crises), are important features for understanding the contemporary crises of liberal democracies in the European Union, such as democratic backsliding, and the rise of populism. This research identified a new logic of understanding the paradox of corruption through the lenses of state transformation, under the process of Europeanisation and the gradual hollowing out of democracies, bound to an unaccountable use of power. This research has identified that the oversight role of national parliaments, the political party transformation in CEE countries and the law-making process under EU legal harmonisation are key factors for understanding the challenges of democratic embeddedness on a nation-state and EU level. It has been found that the difficulties in consolidating democracies are bound to the gradual disenchantment between citizens and their societies. The weak position of the national parliaments to exercise democratic accountability, the lack of internal party democracy and the questionable law-making processes do not allow for rooting out corruption from the political systems. The constrains of legitimation exercised through the national parliaments can indirectly affect the EU’s democratic legitimacy and are creating a loop of many contemporary challenges for representative democracies