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- Democracy Bulletin, September 2022
Democracy Bulletin, September 2022
Democracy Bulletin, September 2022
DEMOCRACY BULLETIN
News from the CEU Democracy Institute
The sixth issue of the Democracy Bulletin, the quarterly newsletter of the CEU Democracy Institute, 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, articles, podcasts or videos, then please follow us on
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as well.
HIGHLIGHTS
Budapest Forum 2022 – Building Sustainable Democracies
Following last year's inaugural event, leading experts, activists, decision-makers and journalists will return to the two-day Budapest Forum, organized by the Municipality of Budapest, Political Capital and the CEU Democracy Institute to discuss the most pressing issues currently facing citizens of democratic and nominally democratic countries. Confirmed speakers include Francis Fukuyama, Senior Fellow at Stanford University; Mircea Geoana, Deputy Secretary General of NATO; Kati Marton, Action for Democracy Advisory Council Chair; Jamie Fly, President of Radio Free Europe in Washington; Sergey Guriev, Provost of Science Po and former advisor to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; Borislav Sandov, Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria; Hanna Hopko, Chair of Democracy in Action Conference; Radoslaw Sikorski, Member of the European Parliament; Olga Richterova, Deputy Speaker of the Czech Chamber of Deputies; and Simon Cheng, exiled pro-democracy activist and founder of Hongkongers in London. Read more here.
New Book by Balint Magyar and Balint Madlovics
The authors’ previous work, The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes (CEU Press, 2020) within the frame of a new paradigm created a new descriptive language for post-communist regimes. In spite of it being available open access in English, the need arose for a shorter, more compressed version for a wider public. This need is answered by A Concise Field Guide to Post-Communist Regimes. In 120 propositions and 12 country studies, it offers a comprehensive conceptual ‘toolkit’ for analyzing a region where the latest cruel events of Russia’s war against Ukraine call for a better understanding of the real nature of post-communist regimes. Learn more here.
Erin Jenne Received CEU 2022 Research Excellence Award
Our Research Affiliate Erin Jenne has been selected as the recipient of the 2022 CEU Research Excellence Award for her exceptional performance in terms of research and publications the past academic year. She published 8 peer-reviewed book chapters and journal articles, all in high quality outlets, and her research output builds on CEU resources and strengthened collaborative research networks across departments and between students and faculty, while still making strong contributions to her fields of international relations, nationalism and security studies. Read more here.
Laszlo Bruszt’s Co-authored Article Selected Among Best Papers at EUSA Biennial Meeting
The paper co-authored by our Co-Director Laszlo Bruszt, Gergo Medve-Balint and Dora Piroska, entitled ’The Trap of Confederalism - Managing Developmental Gaps, Widening Divides’ was selected for inclusion in a special issue of the Journal of European Public Policy that highlights the best papers from European Union Studies Association’s (EUSA) 2022 Biennial Meeting in Miami, Florida. Read it here.
Sarah Ganty Quoted in The New York Times
The article in The New York Times covers the European debate over the proposed visa ban for Russian tourists. “A proposed visa ban has divided many Europeans, with some arguing it would increase pressure inside Russia and others questioning whether it plays into Kremlin claims of persecution by the West,” it writes and quotes our Research Affiliate Sarah Ganty who argued that a comprehensive ban would be illegal under EU law. Read more here.
CEU Democracy Institute Leadership Academy Kicked Off
With the first in-person session and its 21 participants, the CEU Democracy Institute Leadership Academy (DILA) was launched on September 8. DILA is our unique, 12-week leadership training program for a new generation of public leaders in Central and Eastern Europe. The 2022 program explores current challenges political parties and activists face in European democracies. Learn more about it here.
New Project: Co-Creating Inclusive Intersectional Democratic Spaces Across Europe
As part of a 10 members research consortium we have launched a new four-year project funded by European Commission Horizon Europe program. The objective is to contribute to strengthening and re-invigorating European democracies starting from the assumption that feminist theories and activism are essential sources of both resistance to anti-gender discourses and politics, and to revitalizing citizens’ engagement with democratic institutions and values. Read more about it here.
THE DI IN VIENNA
Academic Freedom in Times of Illiberal Assaults on Democracy
The university – as a site of critical thinking, knowledge production and knowledge transfer – is a popular target of illiberal attacks in all democracies today. This conference, co-organized with CEU and The New Institute, explores the shape and shades of academic freedom across the globe in times of illiberal assaults on democracy. Scholars and practitioners, who have been at the forefront of defining and defending the elusive freedom, are invited to share their experiences and exchange ideas. Check the detailed program here.
OPPORTUNITIES
Postdoctoral Fellowship
The CCINDLE
project of the CEU Democracy Institute invites applications for a full-time Postdoctoral Research Fellow position. Learn more here.
RESEARCH
DEMOCRACY IN HISTORY
Research Grants Completed
The Workgroup hosted three research grants offered by DI for explorative research. The outcomes of the first, led by Daniel Palm, focusing on the structure and content of government-aligned Chinese expertise in Hungary and Nicaragua, set the ground for further research on the co-construction of Chinese hegemony by authoritarian governments. The second, led by Gabor Egry, worked on Central European street name entries to build a database, translated texts, consulted with relevant museums, in order to set up the basis of a regional cooperative project. The third project, led by Anna Menyhert, seeks to connect research on the Holocaust and on bystander attitudes to explore the impact of intergenerational trauma on democratic skills and compares how young people in Hungary and Austria see their role in democracy.
DE-/RE-DEMOCRATIZATION
Book Co-authored by Zsolt Enyedi Awarded by AECPA
The volume of our Research Affiliate
and
(University of Nottingham),
, published by Oxford University Press, has been
as the best book by the Spanish Political Science Association (AECPA).
Filip Milacic on Stateness and Democratic Backsliding
Our Research Affiliate
argues in
that “stateness problem creates conditions that facilitate democratic backsliding even if a country achieves a considerable level of democratic development: a fertile ground for ethno-political entrepreneurship and national identity-based political divisions that promote polarization.”
ENVIRONMENT AND DEMOCRACY
Study on Citizen Participation
The first academic publication from the REAL DEAL Horizon project is an article entitled, “Developing Normative Criteria for Meaningful Citizen Participation and Deliberation in Environmental Policy,” developed by consortium colleagues. The Workgroup’s lead researcher
and post-doc
are co-authors of the study.
Two Researchers Join the WG
Two professors are joining the Workgroup in special capacities. Professor
of CEU Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy will serve as a CEU Research Affiliate under a DI grant. Professor
of the University of Baltimore School of Law will join as an external Research Affiliate for the coming academic year.
INEQUALITIES
Conference on Politics and Gender
Four workgroup members (
,
,
,
) took part in the
(ECPG) in July in Ljubljana where they presented three papers and organized a panel on topics of gendering the struggle for democracy in times of democratic erosion and anti-gender mobilization through hate speech.
New Horizon Europe Research Grant
A multi-year research project "RAISE: Recognition and Acknowledgement of Injustice to Strengthen Equality" led by Utrecht University has won a Horizon Europe collaborative research grant. Our workgroup member,
will lead the CEU DI team in the consortium, which also includes partners from Belgium, Germany, Poland, Turkey, and civil society groups, such as UCCU, Hungary.
MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY
Eva Bognar Contributes to Digital News Report
This year's
provides evidence that much of the public is turning away from important stories such as the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the cost-of-living crisis. Our Senior Program Officer
wrote the chapter on Hungary.
World’s State Media Database Launched
The
, the world’s state media database is the most complete state media database ever built. Available through the website
, the database contains information on 546 state-administered media companies in 151 countries.
RULE OF LAW
On the Independence of the Court of Justice of the EU
The
of
, lead researcher of our Rule of Law Workgroup and Graham Butler (Aarhus University) reflects on “the judicial independence of the CJEU, and offers reflections on how it can be preserved in the future.”
The Case for an EU Constitutional Awakening
“The Russian aggression against Ukraine has also served as a pretext for putting aside internal discussions about the rule of law,” our Research Affiliate
and
argue in their
in European Law Journal.
PODCASTS
Post-war Christian Democracy Was Relatively Short-lived
In this conversation with Ferenc Laczo, Fabio Wolkenstein explains how Christian Democratic attitudes to liberalism and democracy have evolved over time.
When Do Voters Turn Towards Symbolic Personalities?
Zsolt Enyedi discusses party cooperation in Slovenia with Danica Fink-Hafner, Professor and Head of the Political Science Research Program at University of Ljubljana.
Ghostwriting the European Union
In a conversation with Kasia Krzyzanowska, Professor Tommaso Pavone discusses his newly published book The Ghostwriters.
Rights, If You Can Keep Them
Teodora Miljojkovic interviews Professor John Shattuck, international legal scholar, diplomat, human rights leader and previous CEU rector.
REVIEW OF DEMOCRACY
The
(RevDem) is an open platform to discuss, analyze, reflect on, and develop possible solutions to the challenges to democracy across the globe today. The journal is published by the CEU Democracy Institute. Read its most important publications from recent weeks:
Repairing the Damage to Our Ethical Categories
In a conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczo, Charlotte Wiedemann explores the inequalities of the reigning “economy of empathy” and reflects on problematic aspects of German memory culture today.
Read or listen to it
.
It Is a Mistake To See the Eastern Vision as Undemocratic
In conversation with RevDem editor Kasia Krzyzanowska, Peter Verovsek discusses the importance of foundational stories for communities and the consequences of Russian aggression on Ukraine for European memory.
Read or listen to it
.
Rehabilitating the Principle of Hope in Modern History
In conversation with Una Blagojevic and Iker Itoiz Ciaurriz, Enzo Traverso discusses key themes in his newest book
Revolution: An Intellectual History
, and explores his agenda of rehabilitating revolutions as crucial moments of historical change.
Read or listen to it
.
MEET THE DILearn 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, a new video is coming every week.