This essay introduces contributions to a special issue of East European Politics on
“Rethinking democratic backsliding in Central and Eastern Europe”, which seeks to expand …

A major study of the collapse of the Soviet Union—showing how Gorbachev's misguided
reforms led to its demise “A deeply informed account of how the Soviet Union fell apart.” …

We propose the new concept of Caesarean politics to explain democratic deconsolidation in
Hungary and Poland. We argue the move towards illiberal democracy in both countries has …

Offering a single, coherent framework of the political, economic, and social phenomena that
characterize post-communist regimes, this is the most comprehensive work on the subject to …

In this fully revised and updated in-depth analysis of the war in Ukraine, Paul D'Anieri
explores the dynamics within Ukraine, between Ukraine and Russia, and between Russia …

In Is Russia Fascist?, Marlene Laruelle argues that the charge of" fascism" has become a
strategic narrative of the current world order. Vladimir Putin's regime has increasingly been …

Allegations of Russian conspiracies meddling in the affairs of Western countries have been
a persistent feature of Western politics since the Cold War–allegations of Russian …

In January 2022 mass protests spread quickly across the whole of Kazakhstan, becoming
the largest mass mobilization in the country's modern history. We analyze these mass …

Why are some countries governed much more poorly than one might expect judging by their
degree of socio-economic development? In particular, why are most countries of post-Soviet …

This article assesses the usefulness of Fraenkel's concept of the dual state for
understanding the role of law under authoritarianism. The concept, reframed as legal …