News from the CEU Democracy Institute

In the 13th 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 speeches by Polish Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar and US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman, an article in Foreign Affairs, an interview on CNN, and a podcast with Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz.

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HIGHLIGHTS

CEU DI Annual Conference - Democracy and Development: Global Dialogue on Autocratization and Re-Democratization

Our annual conference, under the theme “Democracy and Development: Global Dialogue on Autocracy and Re-Democratization”, was dedicated to rethinking democracy in its political, social, and economic dimensions and aimed to establish a unique platform for interdisciplinary dialogue and cross-exchange of ideas, fostering a deeper understanding of democracy’s contemporary complexities and challenges. It also marked the launch of the Global Forum on Democracy and Development, a project generously funded by the Open Society Foundation, aimed at facilitating creative and critical cross-regional collaboration among scholars from the Global South and North.

Polish Justice Minister Adam Bodnar Launched DI’s Rule of Law Clinic

What are the most important legal and political challenges in rebuilding the Rule of Law in Poland? Polish Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar highlighted them in his lecture in Budapest, providing a unique opportunity to hear a sitting member of an anti-illiberal government explain how the Rule of Law will be restored after nearly a decade of backsliding. The lecture and the subsequent panel discussion launched the CEU Democracy Institute Rule of Law Clinic.

US Ambassador to Hungary Delivers Speech at the DI

We co-organized an event with the US Embassy in Hungary reflecting on the 25th Anniversary of Hungary’s accession to the NATO Alliance. The speakers included US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman, former Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Geza Jeszenszky as well as a panel of experts: Dora Gyorffy (Corvinus University, Budapest), Zsuzsanna Vegh (German Marshall Fund) and Peter Kreko (Political Capital, and Research Affiliate at the DI). The discussion was moderated by our Research Affiliate Ben Novak.

Laszlo Bruszt and Erik Jones on Ukraine's EU Membership in Foreign Affairs

"Europe needs to accept new members quickly to secure democracy today, but it needs to bring them in slowly to secure democracy and stability in the future," our Director Laszlo Bruszt and Erik Jones, Director of the Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies at the European University Institute, warn in their op-ed about Ukraine's path to EU integration in Foreign Affairs. They call for a distribution of EU funds that ensures the wide distribution of winners, in order to prevent "the rise of illiberal demagogues in Ukraine." Without that, "Russia will have the opportunity to promote those groups that lose out from the adjustment process to destabilize Ukraine," they argue.

Zsuzsanna Szelenyi Interviewed by CNN

Hungary is an autocratic country, where Prime Minister Orban has a very strong institutional control, with everyone, including the president of the country, being his nominee. "He is selling his model as an example for the radical right all over the western world," Zsuzsanna Szelenyi, Program Director of the CEU Democracy Institute Leadership Academy told CNN.

DI Publishes Volume on Dismantling the Rule of Law in Hungary

We have released our first print publication, entitled A joguralomtól az uralom jogáig. A jogállam felszámolása Magyarországon 2010-2024 (From Rule of Law to the Right to Rule: The Dismantling of the Rule of Law in Hungary 2010-2024), edited by Gabor Gado, Zsuzsa Kerekes and our Senior Research Fellow Balint Magyar.

‘‘Homecoming’’: Hungary’s 2004 Accession & the Future of EU Enlargement

On the 10th anniversary of our Irish Speaker Series, in partnership with the Embassy of Ireland to Hungary we held a lecture by Pat Cox, former President of the European Parliament to mark the anniversary of Hungary’s EU accession and to consider the future architecture of our shared Union, followed by a panel discussion with experts. Learn more here.

OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Applications: CEU Democracy Institute Leadership Academy

The CEU Democracy Institute Leadership Academy (DILA) is a unique, 12-week-long, part-time English-language leadership training for a new generation of public leaders in Central and Eastern Europe. The course addresses the needs of mid-career local, municipal and national leaders, political party representatives, civil society activists and policy experts working at parties or think-tanks, who seek to promote democratic change. Read the details here.

RESEARCH

DE- AND RE-DEMOCRATIZATION

Breaking the Dynamics of Political Polarization

The annual workshop of the workgroup, convened by Andreas Schedler, Jennifer McCoy, and Murat Somer, focused on depolarization and the failure or success of such conciliatory actors within polarized democratic competition.

The Routledge Handbook of Autocratization

The new volume comprehensively and systematically explores the current understanding and unchartered research paths of autocratization, and features contributions from the workgroup’s researchers, Andreas Schedler, Zsolt Enyedi, Jennifer McCoy, and Murat Somer.

DEMOCRACY IN HISTORY

Tetiana Zemliakova Joins the Workgroup as Lead Researcher

The workgroup has a new lead researcher, Tetiana Zemliakova, an intellectual historian of modern disciplinary knowledge. Her first book project, Building Schools: the American Research University and the Birth of Modern Political Science (1850–1910), is a study dedicated to the intersection between the institutional development of modern research universities and the rise of academic disciplines in Germany and the US.

A Saint Against the State?

The Budapest Jewish Studies Colloquium Series was continued by an exciting seminar by Sam Shuman anthropologist right after his fieldwork in Bodrogkeresztur, a pilgrimage site of the Chassidic wonder rabbi Yeshaya Steiner. Szonja Komoroczy, vice-rector of Budapest's Jewish Theological Seminary, acted as chair.

ENVIRONMENT AND DEMOCRACY

Placing People and the Planet at the Heart of the Green and Just Transition

The REAL DEAL Summit in Budapest will be a gathering of academics, researchers, civil society representatives, practitioners, and other key stakeholders focused on advancing deliberative democracy for sustainable future initiatives.

INEQUALITIES

Gender-based Violence and Autocratization

Exclusionary political visions are gaining ground around the world and gender-based violence is not only a product but also a tool of the political forces behind these visions. The two-day workshop unpacked how gendered violence becomes a mechanism for promoting and sustaining autocratic political projects around the world.

Autocratization and Gender Politics

The chapter by Andrea Krizsan, the workgroup’s lead researcher, and Conny Roggeband, published in The Routledge Handbook of Autocratization, examines the relationship between autocratization and gender equality, and how this relationship evolves in the context of the current autocratic surge.

MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

EU Investigative Journalism Award 2024

Applications are open for the EU Investigative Journalism Award 2024. The prize is awarded in the project “Strengthening Quality Journalism in the Western Balkans and Turkey II,” implemented by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and its consortium partners, including us.

RULE OF LAW

Barbara Grabowska-Moroz Wins Case Before European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling in the “Pietrzak v Poland” and “Bychawska-Siniarska and others v Poland” cases in which it ruled that the system of state surveillance violates the European Convention on Human Rights. Barbara Grabowska-Moroz, Director of our Rule of Law Clinic was one of the applicants.

Restoring the Dialogical Rule of Law in the European Union

An article in the Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies by Dimitry Kochenov, the workgroup’s lead researcher, argues that the misuse of the Rule of Law rhetoric justifying the primacy of EU law renders the EU less accountable and undermines the dialogical pluralist essence of EU constitutionalism.

PODCASTS

To Push for as Large a Change as Our Democratic System Will Permit

Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz discusses key features of progressive, social democratic capitalism with host Ferenc Laczo, and explains what motivated him to want to reclaim the language of freedom from the Right.

On the Crises of Liberalism

In this episode of the Democracy in Question podcast series, CEU President and Rector Shalini Randeria is joined by our Senior Research Fellow Zsolt Enyedi to discuss the crises of liberalism.

Still a Long Way to Go

Hosted by our Research Assistant Eszter Horvath, our Research Affiliate Phillip Ayoub discusses recent developments in the LGBTQ+ movement, and introduces the concept of locally rooted messaging.

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. Check its most important publications from recent weeks:

The Anti-Gender Ideology Movement, Current Theories of Gender, and Their Ideas of Radical Democracy

Judith Butler discusses their interpretation of the anti-gender ideology movement and what makes it “inadvertently confessional,” and illuminates how they think about radical democracy.

The Peter Magyar Phenomenon

In Hungary, Péter Magyar was practically unknown two months ago, but he transformed into a political challenger enjoying the support of broad sections of the society. In their op-ed, Andrea Szabó and Annamária Sebestyén share their insights into the reasons behind his success.

Pellegrini Won in Slovakia. So Did Fico, Orbán, and the Kremlin

In her op-ed, Michaela Terenzani analyzed the results and the implications of the presidential elections in Slovakia.

Remembering the “Big Bang” Enlargement

Commemorating 20 years since the Eastern enlargement of the European Union, five scholars shared their personal reflections in a special series.

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