The wave of democratization that followed the end of the Cold War appears to have reached its end. With increasing populism and authoritarian tendencies in both emerging and consolidated democracies, are we witnessing a backlash and counter-reaction to the democratization efforts of the past three decades? Or are the experiences of countries affected by populism and illiberalism part of new phenomena related to national and international governance?

While we are interested in how political regimes and global governance practices are currently being shaped, we also believe this is a good time for reflection and for analyzing the gaps generated by past and current democratization practices. At the same time, one can analyze and better understand new phenomena related to civil society (re-)activation, growth of social capital and development of philanthropic behavior.

Although democracy relies on citizens as main powerholders, the democratization processes in Central and Eastern Europe, and globally, have been predominantly institutional in their approach, neglecting the ability of citizens to use the power they are entrusted with. Moreover, while many of the countries experience a transition from totalitarian regimes, the extent to which democratization efforts have conceived and projected institutions that govern power expose significant gaps in relation to ethics and embeddedness of democratic values – i.e., many of the emerging and consolidating democracies having a difficult time to consolidate the separation of powers and rule of law.

Finally, the genesis and evolution of civil society in post-totalitarian societies indicate an inability to build political institutions that remain close to citizens. In several countries, civil society sectors are perceived as enemies of the respective governments, leading to weak civil society sectors that are far from being able to ensure their sustainability.

Through our research we aim to address the above questions and to expand our knowledge and practice of enabling democracies to work for citizens.

Team: Amarachi I, Stefan C, Silvia F, Lev F, Laura R. Anca M, Ioana Hasu-G