When EU Political Convergence Fails in New Member States: Corporate and Party State Capture in Croatia and the Czech Republic

The unifying theme of our study is that democratic backsliding in the post-socialist new EU member states occurs against the backdrop of existing or emerging cases of state capture. Following an extensive overview of corporate and party state capture, we update and develop new empirical indicators for tracing each phenomenon. Our claim is that while both varieties of capture have negative effects on democratic legitimacy, there are striking differences in their modus operandi. In that regard we provide two critical case studies, Croatia and the Czech Republic.