News from the CEU Democracy Institute

In 15th edition of the Democracy Bulletin, your quarterly newsletter from the CEU Democracy Institute (DI), we are spotlighting our standout accomplishments and top-notch publications from the past months, including the Invisible University for Ukraine, a new report assessing the EU’s rule of law requirements, and quotes in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Invisible University for Ukraine Receives Prestigious Awards

Our Invisible University for Ukraine (IUFU) has been selected for the 2024 Laurence and Lynne Brown Democracy Medal from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University. The prestigious medal honors the best work advancing democracy in the United States and internationally, and is given annually to recognize practical innovations, such as new institutions, practices, technologies or organizations that advance the cause of democracy. 

IUFU has also been awarded the renowned Dr. Elemer Hantos Prize, which periodically honors exceptional contributions to economic cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe and is generously supported by the Central Europe Foundation (CEF). Notable past recipients of Hantos Prize include, among others, Vaclav Havel or Adam Michnik.

Rule of Law Clinic's Report on the EU's Rule of Law Performance

Since 2020, the European Commission’s Annual Rule of Law Report examines the rule of law in each EU Member State. However, despite repeated calls from the European Parliament, neither the Commission nor the Council have issued a similar report or supported an independent review of the rule of law within the EU institutions themselves. A new report led by our Rule of Law Clinic seeks to address this gap by examining the EU’s own adherence to rule of law requirements. Its main findings were presented at a high-profile event in Brussels.

Andrea Krizsan Shortlisted for Austria’s Ars Docendi State Prize for Excellent Teaching

The Lead Researcher of our Inequalities and Democracy Workgroup, Andrea Krizsan, along with CEU Professor Mathias Moschel, was shortlisted for Austria's Ars Docendi State Prize for Excellent Teaching. The prize has been awarded annually for excellent teaching since 2013 to committed teachers at Austria's public universities, universities of applied sciences, university colleges of teacher education and private universities. An international jury of experts in the field of teaching and teaching development assessed the numerous nominations.

DI Researchers and Programs at Researchers' Night

As part of the programs offered by CEU Budapest in the nationwide Researchers' Night event series in Hungary, our researchers Roland Ferkovics, Balint Magyar and Gabor Petri, and our Context and Istvan Bibo Free University programs held talks/events aimed for the general public. Roland Ferkovics discussed the challenges the Roma minority faces in Hungary and in Europe, and what the EU and the Hungarian government have done and could do to help overcome these challenges. Gabor Petri explored the legal, political and social attitudinal obstacles to achieving a real change in the field of disability rights in Hungary. Balint Magyar discussed a possible new regime change with his audience.

Our Context program, a joint endeavor with the Independent Art Department, linking art and social responsibility, invited guests to remake the Budapest skyline on large photos, while the Istvan Bibo Free University offered an insight into the challenges and struggles in the history of Hungarian free education efforts and counterculture institutions.

DILA 2024 Program Kicks Off

September saw the kick-off of the 2024 CEU Democracy Institute Leadership Academy (DILA) program bringing together a dynamic cohort of 19 outstanding fellows from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. During the opening session in Budapest, participants delved into key topics such as pernicious polarization, strategic thinking, leadership, and the European Green Transition. The session also introduced the complex simulation exercise, which will be a core component of the fellows' learning experience throughout the three-month-long program.

Balint Magyar in The New York Times

"Liberal democracy offers moral constraints without problem-solving, while populism offers problem-solving without moral constraints,” our Senior Research Fellow Balint Magyar is quoted in an op-ed in The New York Times as an explanation to why many Americans apparently voted against liberal democratic values. The article, written by Masha Gessen, largely based on Magyar's observations, describes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's rise to power and the system he has built, making comparisons to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's first term and what may come in his second.

Zsuzsanna Szelenyi in The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal

Zsuzsanna Szelenyi, Program Director of our Leadership Academy commented on Viktor Orban's rise to power in The New York Times. She was also quoted in a Wall Street Journal article about family policies in Hungary and Norway, discussing the dropping fertility rates in Europe.

OPPORTUNITIES

Post-doctoral Researcher, Democracy in History Workgroup

Applications are open for a Postdoctoral Fellow position within our Democracy in History Workgroup. The Workgroup is especially interested in researchers studying the intellectual and epistemic foundations of modern governance, the histories of political participation with a specific focus on politicization and depoliticization of groups and spheres, and the origins, morphology, and affective underpinnings of illiberal politics. Learn more here.

Call for Papers: Who Are the Enemies of Democracy?

The annual workshop of our De- and Re-Democratization Workgroup invites systematic studies to address the manifold challenges of inferring the presence of democratic enemies with utmost analytical clarity. Studies are welcome to discuss the argumentative logics that scholars and political actors use to identify democratic enemies, their openness to corrective evidence, their management of inferential pitfalls and normative dilemmas, and the variety of perspectives that nourish contemporary debates on democratic commitments. Learn more here.

RESEARCH

DE- AND RE-DEMOCRATIZATION

Yuko Sato Joins as Post-doctoral Researcher

Yuko Sato’s research focuses on popular protests, voting behavior, and democratization or autocratization, with a regional focus on Latin America. Her current research agenda centers on two major themes: the process of autocratization and the opposition’s strategies to resist autocratization. She uses a variety of quantitative analyses, including time-series and cross-national studies, natural or survey experiments, as well as qualitative analysis, mostly from fieldwork in Brazil.

Workshops on Resistance and Populism

The Democratic Expeditions workshop, entitled The Moral Dilemmas of Resistance: Political Ethics in the Face of Democratic Regression and Electoral Authoritarianism, created space for systematic studies in the political ethics of electoral authoritarian and regressive democratic regimes, while facilitating a dialog between academic and non-academic stakeholders on the moral dilemmas of resisting these regimes. The workgroup also hosted the annual workshop of the Populism Specialist Group, entitled Populism, Anti-Populism, Polarization.

DEMOCRACY IN HISTORY

Jeno Szucs Lecture Series Continues

The workgroup continued its lecture series with Agnes Flora’s presentation, "The Citizenship Between Dues and Rights in Medieval and Early Modern Urban Contexts,” and Nora Lafi’s “Reflexions on the Historicity of Deliberation and Democracy in the Arab World,” with James Mark’s “Wilson’s White World” coming up. In line with the traditions of the series, the lectures dealt with the topics of medieval citizenship, democratic traditions and the historical discourse of racism through a perspective that transcended the limits of national historiography and rather framed subjects in a cross-regional or global framework.

ENVIRONMENT AND DEMOCRACY

Seminar on Changing Paradigms in Policymaking

The workgroup’s seminar focused on the possibility of “food citizenship” in the European Union, with recommendations for advancing this framework at the EU, national, and local levels, showcasing examples of relevant practices and highlighting potential further action at each level, with particular emphasis on Budapest.

INEQUALITIES

Andrea Krizsan on Opposition to the Istanbul Convention

In an article in Comparative Political Studies The workgroup’s Lead Researcher, Andrea Krizsan, and co-authors Conny Roggeband and Michael C. Zeller examine support for and opposition to the Istanbul Convention in 40 European states, and reveal causation underlying contention between pro-gender, anti-gender, and state actors, and resultant policy outcomes.

Bernadett Sebaly on Civil Society and Protest Movements

"Civil groups should find ways to become active in shaping the field of struggle in the run-up to the 2026 parliamentary elections," our Research Affiliate Bernadett Sebaly argues in an op-ed on Hungarian news portal Hvg.hu. She also discussed the Story of Our Struggles project, an online database of protest events in Hungary between 1989 and 2010 in a podcast with our journal, the Review of Democracy.

MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

Robert Nemeth on Media Capture in Hungary

The Co-managing Editor of our journal, the Review of Democracy and our Communications Officer authored a comprehensive report on media capture in Hungary. The report, published by the International Press Institute (IPI) and the Media and Journalism Research Center (MJRC), assesses the state of media capture by political interests and the extent to which regulation to protect media independence meets new standards set by the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA).

Balazs Vedres and Orsolya Vasarhelyi on Bot Communication

Linda Li, our Senior Research Fellow Balazs Vedres, and our Post-doctoral Researcher Orsolya Vasarhelyi authored an article on the impact of bot communication on social media, based on their project at the DI. The article, published in Nature Scientific Reports, underscores the importance of monitoring the influence of social bots, as with new technological advancements distinguishing between bots and humans becomes ever more challenging.

RULE OF LAW

Dimitry Kochenov and Sarah Ganty at Cambridge Conference

The workgroup’s Lead Researcher, Dimitry Kochenov, and Research Incubation Fellow Sarah Ganty spoke at a Cambridge conference in honor of Eleanor Sharpston, the influential former Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union, and also contributed with a chapter to her Liber Amicorum published by Bloomsbury.

Workshop for Journalists and Editors

The Rule of Law Clinic hosted a training for media professionals working with rule of law issues from all around Europe. Participating journalists from outlets such as BBC World or OKO Press joined intensive seminars given by experts at the Clinic, including Laurent Pech, Joelle Grogan, Anna Wojcik, Aleksandra Ancite-Jepifanova, and the Clinic's Director, Barbara Grabowska-Moroz.

PODCASTS

The U.S. Elections with Levente Littvay

The first episode of a new podcast series in collaboration between the Review of Democracy and CEU's Department of International Relations focused on the U.S. presidential election and featured Levente Littvay with hosts Erin K. Jenne and Letitia Roman.

Franziska Wagner on Positive Authoritarianism

Franziska Wagner, our Research Assistant, joined “The Periphery” podcast of the Pulaski Institution to discuss her recent article co-authored with our Senior Research Fellow Zsolt Enyedi. The episode explores how the far right makes extremism sound good.

The Roots of Protecting Academia at Risk

The first episode of a new podcast series of the Academia at Risk project introduces the personal journey of our Research Affiliate Andrea Peto.

Shadowing the European Commission on Rule of Law?

Our Post-doctoral Researcher and Review of Democracy editor Oliver Garner discusses the effectiveness of the EU’s Rule of Law Report for upholding the EU's values with our Research Affiliate Petra Bard and Senior Research Fellow Laurent Pech.

REVIEW OF DEMOCRACY

The Review of Democracy (RevDem) is our online journal to discuss, analyze, reflect on, and develop possible solutions to the challenges to democracy across the globe today. Check its most important publications from recent weeks:

Collaboration with the Journal of Democracy

The journal launched a monthly special series in cooperation with the Journal of Democracy, in which authors shall discuss outstanding articles from the newest print issue of the Journal of Democracy each month.

Listen to the first episode with Kanchan Chandra exploring the strengths and limitations of modern democracies here, and second episode with Grzegorz Ekiert and Noah Dasanaike explaining their concept of dictatorial drift here.

Reflections on the Reelection of Donald Trump

Given all the grave concerns regarding the future of democratic norms and institutions in the US, Hungary’s transformation under Viktor Orbán’s rule offers the kind of warning that observers would ignore at their own peril. At the same time, Trump’s re-election threatens a return to oversaturated and simplistic discussions on populism.

Read Ferenc Laczo’s analysis of the similarities and differences between Hungary and the US here, and Ece Ozbey’s article on the impact on populism research here.

Interview with Mikulas Dzurinda

Mikulas Dzurinda, President of the Wilfried Martens Centre and former Prime Minister of Slovakia, discusses the changes that EU membership has brought to Slovakia; reflects on the recent rightward shift in Europe and how this might influence the EPP’s priorities; analyzes potential changes in Slovak foreign policy and the relationship with Hungary; and argues for Ukraine’s NATO accession.

Andres Malamud on Political Outsiders in Latin America

Andres Malamud, a leading scholar of Latin American politics, discusses a crucial development in current political affairs: the rise of successful political outsiders in Latin America.

Nathalie Tocci on the EU’s Global Strategy

Nathalie Tocci, Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali and part-time professor at the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute, discusses the direction the EU has taken in recent years in the light of its global strategy and how far it has managed to become strategically autonomous.

Roland Freudenstein on Russia and Ukraine

Roland Freudenstein, Director of the Free Russia Foundation Brussels, and Founder and Executive Officer of the Brussels Freedom Hub discusses Russia’s geopolitical ambitions, how the war in Ukraine may end, and the potentials for a regime change in Moscow; reflects on democratic backsliding in EU Member States; and shares his thoughts about autocrats and how societies can be more resilient against authoritarianism.

Ferenc Laczo on Spirals of Radicalization

“Underlying the current cataclysm is Israel’s growing inability to reconcile the fundamental contradiction between its Jewish identity and its democratic claims. Meanwhile, right-wing illiberal and radical leftist responses in the West bear clear marks of the spiral of radicalization in the Middle East,” Ferenc Laczo wrote on the anniversary of the October 7 terror attack in Israel.

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