Category: Central/Eastern Europe

Countering Political Polarization: What Has Been Tried? What Works?

     

  By Thomas Carothers and Andrew O’Donohue* Severe political polarization is tearing at the seams of democracies around the world, from Brazil, India, and Kenya to Poland, Turkey, and the… Read more »

CEE democracy ‘in mortal danger’ or illiberalism facing a backlash?

     

Democracy is in mortal danger in Poland, in part because of the failure of the opposition, says a leading analyst. Here is a government that spreads unsupported conspiracy theories, is doubling… Read more »

Poland’s populist turn: A looming Hungarian scenario

     

Poland’s election on Oct. 13 is the biggest test of the Law & Justice Party’s durability, say Bloomberg analysts Wojciech Moskwa and Rodney Jefferson. It has increased its popularity by… Read more »

Sects, lies and populists: ‘democratic self-destruction’?

     

Look back a year, and remember how disquieting European politics seemed, as populist strategist Steve Bannon seemed to be on the verge of establishing The Movement, a cross-border alliance of… Read more »

‘Democratic agnosticism’: Who is equivocating over promoting liberal values?

     

With protests raging in Hong Kong as well as in autocratic countries like Algeria and Egypt, and anti-democratic strongmen multiplying across the globe, the European Union is facing greater pressure… Read more »

Balkans youth network & Uyghur intellectual win Havel Human Rights Prize

     

  In 2003, a group of young people from Kosovo and Serbia established the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) in Belgrade to connect young people from the two countries… Read more »

Ukraine’s ‘Invisible Battalion’

     

On paper, she was officially enlisted as a seamstress due to restrictions on women’s military employment, the National Democratic Institute notes. In reality, Andriana Susak served as an assault trooper… Read more »

Global Disinformation Order: organized social media manipulation in at least 70 countries

     

Organized social media manipulation has more than doubled since 2017, with at least 70 states employing computational propaganda to shape public opinion, according to a new analysis.  In Vietnam, citizens… Read more »

Georgia at risk of democratic backsliding?

     

A former U.S. diplomat says he has never seen Georgia so politically divided and warns that the country could retreat from the democratic progress it has made, Todd Prince, a senior… Read more »

China’s authoritarian model poses long-term threat to democracies

     

China poses a long-term threat to the United States, to liberal democracy and to the international order,  John C. Rood, undersecretary of defense for policy, told a policy forum in… Read more »