Valentin Behr

Transnational production and circulation of ideas from the periphery. Polish conservative intellectuals and the critique of liberal democracy

This research provides an in-depth study of the involvement of Polish intellectuals in transnational conservative networks since the end of the Cold War, complemented by a case-study on the French intellectuals involved in these networks. It tackles three topical issues of social sciences: populism and conservative Right parties; European values; the transnational circulation of political ideas.

In order to identify the ideological sources of the critique of liberal democracy, the research focuses on the actors contributing to the work of ideological production and the transnational networks to which they participate. It traces the exchanges between conservative intellectuals on both sides of the former Iron Curtain since the end of the Cold War in order to understand the references and mutual influences between different streams of the European conservative Right. Its empirical focus is on the intellectuals who have played a key role in shaping the Law and Justice (PiS) party’s political program and ideology and on their involvement in the transnational circulation of conservative ideas. Although Poland is often considered as a peripheral space in the transnational circulation of ideas, the project investigates the work of ideological production carried out by Polish intellectuals, while embedding them in a broader dynamic of transnational exchanges.

In so doing, this research aims at providing new insights into the ideological reconfigurations of the conservative Right in Europe.