This lecture offers an overview of the radical right's interactions with mainstream parties and the effect they have on setting political agendas in the region. The focus is on sensitive policy areas such as minority policies and asylum regulations. Based on a study of shifts in major parties’ policy positions and in minority-related policies, the lecture addresses the question to what extent the radical right has changed the quality of democracy in Eastern Europe. This question shall be answered by comparing three groups of countries that are distinct in terms of the relevance of radical right parties: Bulgaria and Slovakia; Hungary, Poland, and Romania; and the Czech Republic and Estonia.

Speaker:

Michael Minkenberg is professor of comparative politics at European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder). From 2007-10 he held the Max Weber Chair for German and European Studies at NYU. He has received his M.A. in American Government from Georgetown University in 1984 and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Heidelberg in 1989. He has taught comparative politics at the universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg, at Cornell University and Columbia University. Professor Minkenberg's research interests include the radical right in liberal democracies; the relationship between religion and politics in Western societies; and, more recently, the role of state architecture in capital cities. His most recent publication is, with Zsuzsanna Végh, Depleting democracies: Radical right impact on parties, policies, and polities in Eastern Europe (Manchester University Press 2023).

Moderator:

Marlene Laruelle is a Research Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES), and Director of the Illiberalism Studies Program.