Serbia ‘becoming a one-party system’?
Serbia’s president declared a landslide victory Sunday for his right-wing party in a parliamentary vote held amid concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus and a boycott of much… Read more »
Category: Central/Eastern Europe
Don’t underestimate resilience of the smart new despotisms
The new despotism defies the standard distinction between democracy and authoritarianism, argues John Keane (above), Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney and WZB (Berlin). The “whip-smart resilience” of… Read more »
How to counter ‘troubling trends’ of democratic erosion?
Hungary’s restrictions on the financing of civil-society organizations are unlawful, the European Union’s highest court ruled on Thursday, in a resounding rebuke to Prime Minister Viktor Orban over measures that… Read more »
Civil society sources of Ukraine’s resilience
Ukraine is a front-line state in the struggle between European rule-based order and Russian kleptocratic autocracy. Since the Euromaidan Revolution in 2013–14, Russia has deployed a range of measures –… Read more »
Hungary vote an ‘optical illusion’ and ‘peacock dance’
Hungarian lawmakers have voted in favour of repealing extraordinary powers granted to Prime Minister Viktor Orban to fight the coronavirus, the BBC reports: Members of parliament unanimously requested the… Read more »
Fighting China’s Surveillance State wins award for Coda
A National Endowment for Democracy (NED) grantee today received the Distinguished Reporting Award of the 2020 European Press Prize for Fighting China’s Surveillance State by Isobel Cockerell (UK), published by Coda… Read more »
Europe’s resourceful civil society a powerful tool for fighting disinformation
Lithuania’s elves (above) are just one branch of a surprisingly complex and creative network across Europe that is combating disinformation from local sources, Russia, and elsewhere, says Thomas Kent, a… Read more »
Belarus’s oft-maligned civil society rises to Covid challenge
Belarus’s oft-maligned civil society, which most people had written off years ago – after 26 years of persecution and authoritarian rule – has risen to the challenge of confronting the… Read more »
Eastern Europe’s democratic transitions 30 years on: Diverse experience & narratives
The US can still influence democratic standards in Central Europe more effectively than any other external power because it is equipped both with the instruments of soft and hard power… Read more »
Hope for Eastern Europe’s civil society: Scenarios for the Eastern Partnership
Hundreds of people in Minsk protested against the rule of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the largest opposition demonstration of the year. They denounced the authoritarian rule of Lukashenko, who… Read more »