A few weeks ago, I received the letter pictured above from Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán in my mailbox. “Dear citizen! I write to you today because Hungary has a parliamentary election next …
Lessons Learned in Brussels: What Hungary’s Democratic Erosion Tells Us About the European Union’s Leverage
Incentives are everything. Since its founding in 1993, the European Union (EU) has understood this and become a master of soft power pressure and incentive-based democratic reforms. Indeed, as much as …
How to Defeat Populism: Three Lessons from Slovakia by Jenny W. Xiao
On March 30, 2019 Zuzana Caputova, leader of Progressive Slovakia (PS), won a sweeping victory in the country’s presidential election. In a few months, she will become Slovakia’s first female …
Continue Reading about How to Defeat Populism: Three Lessons from Slovakia by Jenny W. Xiao →
Attack on Media Freedom in Hungary by Takatoshi Sawayama
While Western European countries are in a political turmoil, some Central and Eastern European countries face an even graver crisis. Bolstered by skepticism with regards to the European Union, which …
Continue Reading about Attack on Media Freedom in Hungary by Takatoshi Sawayama →
Hungary’s Embrace of Illiberal Democracy by Nicole Wells @ American University
Just before the Hungarian national election in 2014, Prime Minister Victor Orban declared his intention to build an illiberal state in Hungary. Orban said the “Hungarian nation is not a simple sum of …
Austrian Democracy is Safe – For Now by Lindsey Powell @ University of Pennsylvania
On March 12th, Austrian citizens and political elites gathered at Heldenplatz, the public courtyard in front of Vienna’s Hofburg Palace. The date marks the 80th anniversary of Hitler’s "Anschluss", or …