Michael Bauer
Populists have risen to executive office worldwide. In this context, Michael W. Bauer argues, we must pay more systematic attention to threats to the state and its institutions; the potential long-term impacts of the damage that populist governments can inflict 'from within' are potentially devastating Read more
Kaja Kaźmierska
Kaja Kaźmierska analyses a new law passed recently in Poland which violates the Constitution multiple times on the pretext of investigating Russian influence over Polish politics. Opposition parties have dubbed this law the 'Lex Tusk', arguing that its purpose is predominantly to prevent a Tusk victory in the forthcoming elections Read more
Daniela Donno
Gender-washing regimes pay lip service to liberal norms, but reforms tend to be top-down and symbolic. To advance women’s rights, we need to pay attention to the question of how de jure legal rights can be effectively claimed and experienced by women, according to Daniela Donno Read more
Tejendra Pratap Gautam
The recent victory of the Congress party in the southern state of Karnataka is a step towards the reversal of India's democratic backsliding, writes Tejendra Pratap Gautam Read more
Max Steuer
After the break-up of the governing coalition in Slovakia, President Čaputová appointed Slovakia's first cabinet composed of largely non-partisan experts. Max Steuer questions the labelling of this cabinet as ‘non-political’ or ‘technocratic’. While not hailing from general election results, it enjoys other sources of democratic legitimacy Read more
Andrea Pető
Andrea Pető is a gender scholar formerly based at Central European University in Budapest. Following crackdowns on gender studies by Viktor Orbán's government in Hungary, her institution has been forced into exile in Vienna. Here, Andrea breaks down illiberal leaders' specific strategies to undermine academic freedom, and offers suggestions for how academics, and citizens, can resist illiberal attacks on higher education Read more
Georgios Samaras
With the 21 May election in Greece fast approaching, Georgios Samaras examines the recent surge of ultranationalism in Greek politics. He argues that a process of normalisation of far-right practices is taking place, as echoed in other European countries, including Hungary and Italy Read more
Marcel Lewandowsky
Marcel Lewandowsky argues that much research on populism suffers from that a contextual blind spot: it overlooks the broad variety of illiberal attitudes of which populism is only one variant. Here, he calls for more research on this ‘invisible coalition’ of illiberal attitudes Read more
