Category: Central/Eastern Europe

Poland’s populist win calls into question liberal democrats’ received wisdom

     

  Last Sunday’s Polish parliamentary elections provide political lessons that go well beyond Poland’s borders. The elections disprove important received wisdom about far-right and populist politics, and the results should… Read more »

Post Wall, Post Square: 1989 – The Light that Failed?

     

Like 1776, 1789 and 1917, the year 1989 was one of those rare moments that mark a decisive turning point in human history. So, at least, it seemed at the… Read more »

Renewing democracy in the age of populism

     

Participation without populism is one of three practical solutions to the core challenges facing democracies in the West, according to Nicolas Berggruen and Nathan Gardels, co-authors of “Renovating Democracy:  Governing… Read more »

Where Americans and Europeans agree – and differ – on democratic values

     

How are American attitudes similar to or different from those measured in Europe? Are Americans more individualistic than their European counterparts? More religious? Do they value different things in politics? Results of a new Pew… Read more »

‘Good Governance’ Promotion: Avoid state capture, enhance resilience

     

On Oct. 20, Bolivian President Evo Morales will go to the polls in search of a fourth term. Victory would extend his time in office to almost two decades, and… Read more »

Eastern Europe divided on democracy 30 years after communism

     

Thirty years ago, a wave of optimism swept across Europe as walls and regimes fell, and long-oppressed publics embraced open societies, open markets and a more united Europe. Three decades… Read more »

How Ukraine became Eastern Europe’s ‘vibrant’ democratic success

     

When the Ukrainian autocrat Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia after a popular uprising in 2014, thousands of citizens poured into Mezhyhirya, his 340-acre estate on the outskirts of Kiev, Michelle… Read more »

Targeted: How social media is breaking democracy

     

Russian government-backed cyber aggression is heightening concerns from the west following a spate of high-profile incidents, prompting threats of countermeasures from the likes of Nato, the EU and UK, the… Read more »

From Gutenberg to Google: Disinformation wars ‘only just getting started’

     

British populist Nigel Farage and his Brexit party have voted against stronger European Union measures aimed at countering “highly dangerous” Russian disinformation, the Guardian reports: The party cast their votes… Read more »

Fulfilling the promise of 1989: Time for a second liberation of ‘profound renewal’

     

On the tenth anniversary of 1989, at the brink of the millennium, we could celebrate both the original triumph of the velvet revolutions and great subsequent progress. By the twentieth… Read more »