Populism and Illiberal Democracy in Romania: The Role of Media in the Erosion of Romanian Democracy

The complex relationship between populism and illiberal democracy could be explained with reference to the main characteristics shared by both. Recent electoral success of populist parties in Central and Eastern European countries and the accession to power of so-called illiberal democratic regimes in Hungary and Poland have raised numerous questions that are yet to be answered. One of the main issues that the combination of populism and illiberal democracy has brought to scholarly attention refers to the degree to which media discourse has contributed to the success of these two interrelated phenomena, by means of instilling into people's hearts the core values of populism and illiberal democratic regimes: the centrality of the pure people and the threats posed by out-groups (especially corrupt elites, rich people and immigrants) to the ordinary citizens. In this paper, we present the characteristics of the Romanian media system that may explain the country's accelerated democratic backsliding. We focus on media ownership and media politicization to account for the lack of market plurality and political independence in the Romanian media landscape. This is to show how a key element of a democratic society - the media - can become a threat to the well-functioning of democracy when vulnerable to political pressure.