The author reviews the state of democracy in Central Europe today by considering the specific context of political culture on one hand and, on the other, the context of global neoliberalism. The gap is explored between formal democratisation standards and the actual situation of Central European politics, not limiting the comparison to the post-socialist Central European countries but also including Austria and Italy on the basis of relevant arguments. She demonstrates the functioning and "power techniques" of Central European authorities. A thorough summary follows of the literature on oligarchies aiming at detecting definitions and indicators that could be applied to today's Central European political situation as evidence of the oligarchisation (or not) of political regimes in the region. In the final part, the author comments on key findings from the summary of relevant literature in relation to Central European politics and thereby considers the necessary contextualisation in time and space. The author concludes by opening a debate on the means to revert or at least mitigate the oligarchisation of Central European politics. Methodologically, the author refers to political history sources, political theory, as well as qualitative and comparative analysis and public opinion polls.
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