💡 How do leading scholars reflect on contemporary democracies and the prospects of a more democratic future? This new volume, our first print publication, offers a selection of conversations that probe this overarching question. 📚📚 Learn more: 👉 tinyurl.com/4m5v66by

🎙️ In our new podcast, Mark Leonard (@ecfr.eu) discusses the conclusions he has drawn concerning “the four Cs:” capital, climate, chips, civilizations and talks about what a new, more holistic approach to European security might prioritize. 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/3makzyx3

🎙️ In the new episode of our series produced in collaboration with the @jodemocracy.bsky.social, James Loxton discusses prominent cases of former dictators or their children being elected democratically. 🧑‍💻 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/c7px848y

✍️ In the second part of their analysis, Bálint Madlovics and Bálint Magyar explain why the mafia state ultimately proved unable to escalate coercion further and what democratic opposition movements elsewhere may learn from the Hungarian case. 🇭🇺🗳️ 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/3m6ev7nu

✍️ In the first part of their analysis, Bálint Madlovics and Bálint Magyar examine how a mass democratic movement emerged within an authoritarian system designed to prevent such a challenge, and why the Orbán regime proved unable to stop it. 🇭🇺🗳️ 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/5cf5upzx

🎙️ In the latest episode of our podcast series produced in partnership with the @jodemocracy.bsky.social, Susan Stokes discusses the reasons behind the increase in democratic erosion and possible counter measures. 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/wrzww8ju

🎙️ In the new episode of our podcast series produced in collaboration with the @jodemocracy.bsky.social, José Ramón Morales-Arilla discusses the challenges of democratic transition in Venezuela. 🇻🇪🇻🇪 🎧 Listen to it: 👉 tinyurl.com/3ut8hpnt

📣 Applications are open to our unique leadership training program 📣 The program is designed for mid-career public leaders in Central and South-Eastern Europe. Details: 👉 tinyurl.com/pvtw3e89

🎙️ In the new episode of our series produced in partnership with the @jodemocracy.bsky.social, L. Jason Anastasopoulos and Jie (Jason) Lian discuss the new challenges and opportunities for repression that AI poses. 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/575pt8vs

🎙️ In the new episode of our podcast series produced in collaboration with the @jodemocracy.bsky.social, @pculpepper.bsky.social reframes populism as a differentiated and politically consequential phenomenon rather than a uniformly anti-democratic force. 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/2xtehz6b

✍️ The resounding defeat of the first proudly illiberal regime within the enlarged West forces us to revise entrenched wisdoms about it, Ferenc Laczó writes in his reflection on the Hungarian elections. 🇭🇺🗳️ 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/27mvd9p7

Mark your calendar for this event, where our experts will discuss the most important implications of the Hungarian elections! 🇭🇺🗳️ 🗣️ Andras Bozoki 🗣️ Zsuzsanna Szelenyi 🗣️ Gabor Toka 🗣️ Balint Mikola 🗓️ Apr 20, 5pm CET 📍 Budapest / online Details: 👉 cutt.ly/LtFjtWoC Registration: 👉 cutt.ly/RtFjujEJ

✍️🗞️ "Hungary must seize its chance to oust Viktor Orban," Zsuzsanna Szelenyi, Program Director of our Leadership Academy writes in an op-ed in @economist.com. 🇭🇺🗳️ Details: 👉 cutt.ly/LtDKjYvm

✍️ “The vote on April 12 is Hungary’s best chance in 16 years to choose democracy over autocracy. It may not come again,” our researchers Balint Magyar and Balint Madlovics write in their op-ed in @foreignaffairs.com. 🇭🇺🗳️ Read it now: 👉 cutt.ly/etFh64Cc

✍️ Hungary is awaiting a decisive election, which may cement autocratization or open a path for democratic recovery. In his article, Balint Mikola summarizes the most important expectations, potential outcome scenarios, and their respective implications. 🇭🇺🗳️ 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/3uetsb5f

🎙️ In our new podcast produced in partnership with the @jodemocracy.bsky.social, Andrés Mejía Acosta and @javierpsandoval.bsky.social discuss how, why, and when elected leaders seek to undermine the state. 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/ef276rd6

Mark your calendar for this discussion, co-organized with Political Capital! 🇭🇺🗳️ 🗣️ @fromtga.bsky.social 🗣️ Krisztina Arato 🗣️ @zsolt.bsky.social 🗣️ Peter Kreko 🗓️ Apr 10, 5pm CET 📍 Budapest, Nador u. 15. Details: 👉 cutt.ly/UtAGDDMu Registration: 👉 cutt.ly/3tAGD4sF

🎙️ In our new podcast, @gabilotta.bsky.social explores the risks that emerge when the relationship between politics and bureaucracy breaks down and how these tensions shape democratic governance. 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/382kszrh

🎙️ In our new podcast, produced in cooperation with @jodemocracy.bsky.social, Luciano Da Ros and @manoelgehrke.bsky.social examine how courts can confront authoritarian behavior by elected leaders and why judicial action sometimes succeeds. 🧑‍⚖️🧑‍⚖️ 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/48k3vrkm

🎙️ In our new podcast produced in collaboration with the @jodemocracy.bsky.social, @chenoweth.bsky.social and @matthewcebul.bsky.social discuss the political profile of Gen-Z protesters and what ignited their recent protests across the globe. ✊🪧 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/ypefjnjx

✍️ Donald Trump’s second term exposes how the structural logic of populism breaks down under its own expansion. What once relied on a clear moral divide now operates through thinning legitimacy and the staging of permanent confrontation, Ece Özbey argues. 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/4nw23536

Mark your calendar for the next event in our series, focusing on religious actors. 🗣️ @emiliapalonen.bsky.social 🗣️ @lomascolo.bsky.social 🗣️ @shekhovtsov.substack.com 🗣️ @zsolt.bsky.social 🗓️ Mar 9, 5pm CET 📍 Budapest / YouTube Details: 👉 shorturl.at/b8ZrY Registration: 👉 shorturl.at/REo2i

Mark your calendar for the second event in our series! 🇭🇺🇭🇺 🗣️ Peter Kreko 🗣️ Veronika Kovesdi 🗣️ Balint Mikola 🗣️ @boralexander.bsky.social 🗓️ Mar 2, 5pm CET 📍 Budapest / YouTube Details: 👉 cutt.ly/1tnq3bkY Registration: 👉 shorturl.at/2rN2p

🎙️ In our new podcast, produced in collaboration with the @jodemocracy.bsky.social, Galo Mayorga and @kaimthaler.bsky.social discuss how state weakness, militarized security policies, and public fear are reshaping Ecuador’s democracy. 🇪🇨🇪🇨 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/y5zyn6jp

🎙️ In our new podcast produced in collaboration with @jodemocracy.bsky.social, @raschwartz.bsky.social discusses how logistical failures, elite conflict, and long-term democratic erosion combined to the uncertainty surrounding the elections in Honduras. 🇭🇳🇭🇳🗳️ 🎧 Listen now: 👉 tinyurl.com/yk339tbx

🎙️ In this exclusive end-of-year conversation with our Co-Managing Editor Ece Özbey, Nobel Prize-winning political economist @dacemoglumit.bsky.social reflects on what 2025 revealed and failed to resolve about the state of democracy. 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/mfh3zv6u

🎙️ In our new podcast, Pedro Abramovay (@open-society.bsky.social) offers a wide-ranging analysis of the rise of illiberal forces in Latin America and the democratic vulnerabilities they exploit. 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/2att7rwb

🎙️ In the new episode of our podcast series produced in cooperation with @jodemocracy.bsky.social, @nateschenkkan.bsky.social examines transnational repression: a practice where states pursue individuals and groups beyond their own borders. 🎧 Listen to it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/mvbfhx4t

✍️ In the first op-ed of his new series, @danielhegedus.bsky.social outlines the strategic framework for a reorientation of the foreign policy of a future democratic Hungary, mapping the challenges, trade-offs, and opportunities. 🇭🇺🇭🇺 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/cbtcew39

✍️ Across the world, strongmen follow the same playbook to dismantle democracy. But their favorite tool could also become their greatest weakness if democracy’s defenders learn to flip the script, Filip Milacic writes in his op-ed. 🧑‍💻 Read it now: 👉 tinyurl.com/yn3uczmx