These are long versions of the answers that experts gave us for the Lead Article “Democracy on Life Support” which deals with the rollback of democracy in some Eastern European countries. The article is focusing on the situation in Hungary. Below you find the answers from our three interviewees to […]

I can still remember when the former socialist system collapsed how we used to guess how quickly we would reach the development level of neighboring Austria. What we neglected to think about was the fact that the market economy and democracy are just tools that can be used in different ways. In our […]

Democracy à la Bulgarian Oligarchy. This sounds like a scary disease in a pathetic soap opera. I agree: oligarchy is a type of plague. It is contagious, insidious and pandemic. Without pathos: the beautiful country I come from suffers from chronic oligarchy. It is no new illness: Aristotle defined plutocracy […]

The Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI) pointed to a rollback in democracy in Hungary. Hauke Hartmann of the BTI discusses what he sees. Do you think policies such as those of Fidesz/Orbán are viable in the twenty-first century? Do you think they are appropriate to prepare Hungary as an EU […]

András Inotai, Former Director General of the Institute for World Economics in Budapest, interviewed by Hauke Hartmann, Bertelsmann Transformation Index Senior Project Manager (Bertelsmann Foundation).