Punitive Populism Versus Punitive Nationalism: Criminal Politics in East-Central Europe

Abstract

This study examines the criminal policy development of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. The analysis covers the values ​​and approaches that characterize the development of criminal policy, examines the political and policy instruments used by the Central and Eastern European governments to achieve their political goals, and highlights the specific characteristics of the region's criminal policy. Similar beginnings characterized these countries in the establishment of the sovereign nation-state, as well as in their experiences with communism. Their transition to a market economy occurred roughly simultaneously, and the difficulties of adapting to EU structures were common. In post-communist countries, the lack of trust in formal institutions was a similarly defining feature. The elite that came to power during the regime change made a mistake when they examined the functioning of the criminal justice system in the region's countries only from the perspective of human rights and did not consider the socio-psychological consequences of social changes. At the time, it was not possible to foresee that the "oversupply" of populist politicians would not only characterize the countries of Central and Eastern Europe at the turn of the millennium. Three decades after the fall of state socialism, the political concepts of populism and nationalism and their connection to criminal policy help to clarify what characterizes the criminal justice system of Central and Eastern European countries.