News from the CEU Democracy Institute

The 11th issue of the Democracy Bulletin, the quarterly newsletter of the CEU Democracy Institute (DI), focuses on our most important achievements and publications in the previous months. If you don’t want to miss any of our news items, events, publications, podcasts or videos, then please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

HIGHLIGHTS

We Published Our Annual Report

We are thrilled to announce the release of our Annual Report of the 2022/23 Academic Year, which is another testament to our unyielding dedication to the advancement of democracy through research, collaboration across academic and professional disciplines, free exchange of ideas, and public engagement. The report encapsulates a year of profound insights, groundbreaking studies, high-profile events and meaningful contributions to the realm of democracy studies. Download it here.

Budapest Forum 2023: From the War in Ukraine to Disinformation, Democratic Renewal and EU Funds

The Budapest Forum, a major international conference organized by the Political Capital, the Municipality of Budapest and us, returned for a third consecutive year in October 2023. The two-day event featured contributions from leading politicians and foreign policy experts, and was formally opened by the internationally acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood, a dedicated advocate of democratic governance. Read the main takeaways of each panel here, or watch a recap.

Adam Bodnar Appointed Minister of Justice in Poland

We are thrilled to announce that our Senior Research Fellow Adam Bodnar was appointed Minister of Justice in the new Polish government. “Observance of the Constitution and other laws of the Republic of Poland, care for human and citizen rights and freedoms, repairing the rule of law, Poland's return to the group of loyal European Union member states, and above all, the prosperity and well-being of Polish women and men - these will be the most important values ​​that will guide us Ministry of Justice,” he said upon taking his office. Read the op-ed he wrote last year for our journal, the Review of Democracy here.

Levente Littvay Received the Giovanni Sartori Prize

Together with Federico Vegetti, our Research Affiliate Levente Littvay received the Italian Society of Political Science’s (SISP) Giovanni Sartori Prize for the best article published in the previous year in the association's journal. The prize was announced at the SISP annual meeting in Vienna. The article investigates the association between people's belief in conspiracies and their propensity to endorse political violence or to legitimate radical political action.

DILA 2023 Program Concluded Successfully

The beginning of December saw the conclusion of the 2023 CEU Democracy Institute Leadership Academy (DILA) program. This year’s cohort consists of 19 outstanding fellows from Central Europe: mid-career local and municipal leaders, civil society activists, political party representatives, and policy experts who explored current challenges civil and political leaders face in democracies throughout the three residential sessions, as well as during the bi-weekly online meetings.

Balkan Csárdás: Hungarian Foreign Policy Dance

Since Viktor Orbán reassumed power in 2010, the Hungarian government has taken a more active role in the Western Balkans, significantly expanding its political and economic influence. This shift raises questions about the driving forces behind Hungarian foreign and trade policy in the region. To address this issue, we organized a discussion with Political Capital and the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy (CEID), including the presentation of a research paper from the Belgrade Center for Security Policy. Read a summary here, or watch it now.

Nationalism, Populism, and the Politics of Religion: Towards an Illiberal Reframing of Fundamental Rights

Can populism weaponize freedom of religion to install markers of exclusion in law and politics? Can religion be portrayed as a possessor of the truth to promote nationalist agendas? Susanna Mancini answered these questions in her lecture under our Organized Religion, Constitutions and Democratic Backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe project. Read a summary here, or watch it now.

Statement in Support of Zoltán Ádám

Members of the CEU Democracy Institute, the CEU Institute for Advanced Study and the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives express solidarity with Dr. Zoltán Ádám, recently dismissed from his position as associate professor of economics at Corvinus University. Read the full statement here.

Research on Scholars at Risk and Scholars at Risk Programs

Within the Academics Facing Autocracy program, supported by the Open Society University Network, our research team examines the experience of scholars at risk, and of managers and administrators of scholars at risk programs or similar initiatives to support endangered academics. If you consider yourself a threatened academic or a scholar at risk, or work for a scholars at risk program or similar support structure, please fill our survey. Learn more about the details here.

THE DI IN VIENNA

Well-tempered Power: “A Cultural Achievement of Universal Significance”

Our Senior Research Fellow Martin Krygier delivered a lecture on the rule of law in CEU’s Presidential Lecture Series. He demonstrated that every word in English historian, E.P. Thompson’s phrase, who called the rule of law “a cultural achievement of universal significance,” deserves emphasis and respect.

OPPORTUNITIES

Post-doctoral and Senior Research Fellowships: OSUN Forum for Democracy and Development

The OSUN Forum project of the CEU Democracy Institute in collaboration with Universidad de los Andes, the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town and the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka invites applications for post-doctoral and senior research fellows for an 8-month residential fellowship program between October 2024 and May 2025 in each four regional hubs. Read the details here.

Post-doctoral Fellowship: De- and Re-Democratization Workgroup

The successful candidate is expected to carry out independent empirical research within the broad thematic mission of the research group, and will assist with constructing and consolidating an innovative, international research network. Read more here.

Post-doctoral Fellowship: REAL DEAL project

Applications are also open for a one-year part-time or full-time Postdoctoral Researcher position within the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 research project REAL DEAL (Reshaping European Advances towards Green Leadership Through Deliberative Approaches and Learning). Learn more here.

RESEARCH

DE- AND RE-DEMOCRATIZATION

Call for Papers: Breaking the Dynamics of Political Polarization

The annual workshop of the workgroup invites systematic studies of both “success” and “failure” of such “conciliatory actors” within polarized democratic competition. We welcome studies of depolarizing interventions at either macro- or meso-levels. Papers may analyze contemporary or historical cases and cover democratic regimes in any world region. Learn more here.

Democratic Expeditions: First Workshop Awarded

Democratic Expeditions is a series of international research workshops, supported by the workgroup, the CEU Department of Political Science and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, and is meant to shed systematic light on underexplored issues of democratic crises and democratizing struggles. The Steering Committee decided to award the inaugural funding to “The Moral Dilemmas of Resistance: Political Ethics in the Face of Democratic Regression and Electoral Authoritarianism,” submitted by Zoltán Miklósi and Attila Mráz.

DEMOCRACY IN HISTORY

Budapest Jewish Studies Colloquium Series Launched

The Budapest Jewish Studies Colloquium series was launched in cooperation with the CEU Jewish Studies Program, the Tom Lantos Institute and us. The first roundtable explored the various ways the Holocaust was represented in Cold War Central Europe. It was followed by the launch of The Beginning of Anti-Jewish Legislation, a seminal work by Mária M. Kovács.

Workshop on Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Friendship

What do we talk about when we talk about friendship? The two-day workshop aimed to provide a variety of answers to this question from the humanities and social sciences perspective. It brought together a group of established scholars and early career researchers who explored recent trends in the slowly but surely emerging field of friendship studies.

ENVIRONMENT AND DEMOCRACY

Webinar on Citizen Engagement

On November 15-16, the workgroup hosted a 2-day online event, "Developing More Coherent and Inclusive Citizen Engagement: Guidance and Tools." It was organized together with Wageningen University and Research and launched the development of the REAL DEAL Protocol: Guidance and Toolkit for effective citizen engagement in the European Green Deal.

Intervention at UN Environment Program

The workgroup’s lead researcher Stephen Stec attended the Global Consultations on Nature-Based Solutions at UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya, and delivered an intervention in the intergovernmental segment on NBS financing as facilitator of the Science and Technology Major Group.

INEQUALITIES

New Book Co-edited by Gábor Petri

The Routledge International Handbook of Disability Human Rights Hierarchies, co-edited by our OSUN Post-doctoral Fellow Gábor Petri was inspired both by the continued need to expose human rights violations against persons with disabilities, but to also explores the nuanced role that hierarchies play in the spread, implementation, and protection of disability human rights. It comprises 34 chapters including case-studies from various countries.

New Report of the Roma Civil Monitor Project

The Roma Civil Monitor project published its transnational thematic report on successful examples of residential desegregation of Roma in European Union member states. It is a major output of the RCM project that resulted from cooperation with civil society organizations from six countries participated. Read the report here.

MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

Workshop on Strengthening Journalism

The International Advisory Board and other important stakeholders of our Strengthening Quality News and Independent Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey project, led by Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, joined us for a workshop in Budapest. Learn more about the project here.

RULE OF LAW

Rule of Law Clinic Launched

Supported by the Mercator Foundation, we launched the CEU DI Rule of Law Clinic, a program addressing the foremost challenges to the Rule of Law in Europe by providing direct support to practitioners and scholars. The Clinic, led by Miroslaw Wroblewski, will give the rule of law a voice across the continent. Learn more here.

New Book Co-edited by Dimitry Kochenov

The Research Handbook on the Politics of Constitutional Law, edited by Mark Tushnet and Dimitry Kochenov, lead researcher of our Rule of Law Workgroup, deals with the politics of constitutional law around the world. Our researchers Martin Krygier, András Sajó, Elena Basheska, Mariam Begadze, Sarah Ganty and Violeta Beširević also contributed to the volume.

PODCASTS

Bálint Madlovics and Bálint Magyar: The Russia-Ukraine War

In the latest episode of the Author Spotlight Series by CEU Press, Bálint Madlovics and Bálint Magyar talked with Oksana Huss, Mikhail Minakov and Kálmán Mizsei, who all contributed to their edited volume on the war.

Political Polarization: Have We Got It Wrong?

In this podcast by the Centre for Elections, Democracy, Accountability and Representation (CEDAR), our Senior Research Fellow Andreas Schedler and Petra Alderman talk about the meaning of political polarization, its actors and drivers, and the effects it has on contemporary democracy.

Bulgaria Gripped by Political Instability

With our Research Assistant Flóra Hevesi, Ruzha Smilova explores Bulgaria's complex and ongoing political crisis, which has left a profound mark on the country's political landscape.

For Money Laundering To Occur, All That Authorities Have To Do Is Nothing

Our Communications Officer Robert Nemeth discusses with Dean Starkman and Neil Weinberg Cyprus Confidential, the latest project of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists exposing how Cyprus-based financial services firms have enabled the Russian elite to shelter their wealth.

REVIEW OF DEMOCRACY

Our journal, the Review of Democracy (RevDem) is an open platform to discuss, analyze, reflect on, and develop possible solutions to the challenges to democracy across the globe today. Read its most important publications from recent weeks:

Slovakia’s Path, the Visegrad Group Today, and the Implications for Europe

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Miroslav Wlachovský, former Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia discusses Slovakia’s role in the EU, analyzes the recent Slovak elections and the potential consequences its outcome will have in terms of the country’s foreign policy; and reflects on the relationship between Slovakia and Hungary as well as the future of the Visegrad Four.

The Authentic Polish Experience

“The true understanding that escapes the fate prescribed by national identities does not rely on knowing the other, but getting to know oneself,” RevDem editor Kasia Krzyżanowska writes in her review of The Pole by J.M. Coetzee.

Yaroslav Hrytsak on the Global History of Ukraine

In this conversation with Visible Ukraine editor Marta Haiduchok and RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Yaroslav Hrytsak explains what makes Ukraine a geopolitically crucial borderland and why the Ukrainian question has become acute at the most critical turns in global history.

Democracy Cannot Really Function if It Is Not Liberal

In this interview produced in cooperation with our Authlib project, Cas Mudde and Zsuzsanna Vegh explore how illiberalism relates to populism, whether illiberals can be democrats, and many other questions.

MEET THE DI

Learn more about our colleagues! Click on the image below to watch their videos, in which they introduce themselves, and talk about their work. Stay tuned, new videos are coming on Fridays.

Learn more about the CEU Democracy Institute