Category: Europe

Hungary’s illiberal victimhood narrative stifling freedom, limiting dissent

     

A change in control at Budapest’s 1956 Institute, prompted by Hungary’s illiberal premier Viktor Orban, is part of a wider trend of stifling academic freedom and limiting public dissent, creating… Read more »

Models for democratic renewal & resilience in an age of uncertainty

     

Why and how do authoritarian leaders gain popular support? In his book, Threat to Democracy: The Appeal of Authoritarianism in an Age of Uncertainty, social psychologist Fathali M. Moghaddam argues that… Read more »

Will the EU be a player or a playground? Solidarity of democratic West ‘matters as much as ever’

     

Today, the cohesion of the West matters as much as ever in the face of a newly assertive Russia and China, argues David Reynolds, professor of international history at the… Read more »

Yes, civil society can help prevent democratic breakdowns

     

A quiet revolution is sweeping Eastern Europe. From the Czech Republic to Albania and from Slovakia to Romania, people are taking to the streets to demand greater transparency from their… Read more »

‘Backlash to the backlash’: tide turning against populism?

     

  The newly-elected prime minister of the center-right New Democracy party, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, promises a return to normality for the middle class after 4.5 years with the populist Syriza party… Read more »

The beginning of the end for populism?

     

Greece was the first European country to elect a left-wing populist in the wake of the financial crisis and has showed a clear change of tack four years later. Is… Read more »

Post-Erdoganism? Istanbul election shows resilience of Turkey’s democracy

     

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is grappling with the fallout of the ruling party’s big defeat in the Istanbul mayoral election, and his government faces pressure to release political prisoners,… Read more »

Contesting Democracy: Can post-ideological ‘Macronism’ stem the populist tide?

     

Europe is in a tough spot, as it tries to reconcile the rise of populism with the need to confront migration, climate change, the digital revolution, the structure of its… Read more »

Is liberal democracy under threat in the Czech Republic?

     

On June 23, organizers estimate that more than 250,000 protesters in Prague gathered to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš — and for loosening the control of the… Read more »

Russia’s soft power set to divide Council of Europe’s democracies

     

The late Russian president Boris Yeltsin once said his country’s entry into the Council of Europe would help create a “new, greater Europe, free from dividing lines” and “united by common… Read more »