It was long ago that one of the world’s most famous political scientists, Seymour Martin Lipset, established a positive correlation between the level of education, urbanization and other factors of economic development on the one hand and democratic development and a more participative political culture on the other.  In short, […]

At the end of 2010 both the Washington Post and the Economist created a new buzz word for describing the political situation in Hungary: “Putinization”. So how can Russia escape from its own “Putinization?” Russia has never been a big supporter of democratic freedoms, prefering to draw on its imperial […]

Transition takes time, and each country proceeds along its own path at its own pace. The current situation in Hungary or Romania is comparable to similar situations in years past in other transition countries in Central Europe. These countries need is simply more time for their young democracies and market economies to become more successful.

DOs and DON’Ts. We become familiar with their meaning in childhood. “Do this”, “don’t do that”. It’s a world made up of permitted and forbidden things and it’s usually others that impose the rules on us. If this is so, where is our free will? And if this is what […]

Democracy in Hungary: Why Outsiders Should Care Alexey Sidorenko, a Future Challenges blogger based, has been observing the rollback in democracy in Hungary under Fidesz. Looking from the outside in, he sees it as one example of a broader rollback in democracy in Eastern Europe. Follow Alexey @sidorenko_intl. This article […]