This cross-disciplinary contribution asks, why the erosion of rule of
law as part of the democratic backlash has taken place in ‘Eastern
Europe’. It is argued that the question is about prestige, in which
Poland and Hungary are struggling for a greater status and social
recognition as ‘middle powers’. In this search of prestige long history
matters, and prestige and power is easily considered to have a priority
before the rule of law, as practice before theory, and ‘realism’ before
‘liberalism’. At first, the article revisits the politics of cartography
and updates debates of naming, as the concepts of ‘Eastern Europe’,
‘Central Europe’, or ‘East Central Europe’ remain contested.
Furthermore, the experience of difference is located in ideas of
separating ‘East’ and ‘West’ and to the status of democracy on the
continent. As the article particularly compares Poland and Hungary,
special chapters are dedicated to their centuries old histories and
mutual friendship. Empirical examples come from current discussions on
‘illiberal’ and ‘flawed’ democracy as the Polish Three Seas Initiative.