Will the European Union escape its autocracy trap?
本文探讨欧盟为何长期未能有力应对成员国威权化，为何自2021年底态度转强，以及为何即使如此，欧盟短期内仍难以摆脱威权陷阱。
This article explores three intertwined questions concerning the European Union’s reaction to the rise of increasingly autocratic member governments. First, why did the EU fail to act robustly to address the emergence of such governments for a decade? Second, why has the EU become more assertive in challenging them since late 2021? Third, and more prospectively, should the EU’s more assertive stance and recent electoral developments in Poland give us reason to believe that the EU may be on the cusp of escaping its autocracy trap? The article identifies the key features of the institutional structure and political culture of the EU that long discouraged it from responding robustly to the autocracy crisis, explains why the erosion of these features spurred the EU to take more vigorous actions over the last two years, and concludes with an analysis of why – despite this recent shift in approach – we should not expect the EU to escape its autocracy trap anytime soon.