The Impacts of Executive Responses on Democracy During the Coronavirus Crisis in Croatia, Slovenia and Austria

Abstract

In Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, the coronavirus crisis raised pre-existing
deficiencies in the democratic orders to the surface, i.e., issues in
functioning according to democratic principles in the circumstances of a
public health crisis. In Austria, the strained executive-legislative relations
were already visible in April 2020, when the opposition parties refused to
support the second wave of crisis legislation without the appraisal process
that would justify its urgency. In Croatia and Slovenia, the governments
decided not to declare a state of emergency, arguably in order to avoid
cooperation with the opposition and other state institutions in drafting and
passing crisis legislation. Finally, in Slovenia, the government used the crisis
as a pretext to install its people into leading positions in several key state
and public institutions.