The CEE Affairs Review is now accepting submissions from students for the inaugural edition of the journal. Applications are open until May 14, 2023.
In the 1990s, the CEE region stood out for the speed of democratization and the broader prospects it offered to the world’s democratic movement. However, as the last 30 years suggest, the democratization process and the region’s relationship with democracy have been far less linear, predictable and unambiguous than initially thought.
With our first issue, we aim to zoom out of this narrow 30-year period, extending the analytical lens both conceptually and temporally, to examine the wider relationship between the CEE region and one of the Western world’s most significant political ideas. We are looking for articles that are broad in their scope and - ideally - address the issue’s topic from one of the different angles of political science, international relations, history, sociology, economics, or political theory.
“Democracy” tends to mean different things to different people, and this diversity of views is something we want to capture. We welcome articles that conceive democracy as a social, cultural, political, historical or economic phenomenon; articles that analyze, praise or criticize its causes and consequences; and articles that examine the influence the region had on the worldwide democratic movement, as well as ways in which global developments influenced the CEE democracies themselves.
While we welcome all pieces that fall under the broad topic of “Central and Eastern European affairs”, for this issue, we are particularly looking for articles that examine the region’s relationship with democracy from one of the following angles:
Politics & International Relations: regional democratization and democratic backsliding, competitive authoritarianism in the CEE region, institutional analyses of region’s democracies (electoral institutions, party systems, judiciary), the intersection between democratic governance and foreign policy, the role of geopolitics in the region’s democratization, the EU and CEE democracies.
Economy: the relationship between income inequality and the success of democracy in the region, the impact of the economic transitions of the 1990s on democratization and democratic consolidation, the role of economic policy in democratic consolidation, the future of income distribution patterns and political economy effects (ageing population, immigration, skill-shortage), resource-rich CEE economies and the prospects of democratization.
Culture, History, and Society: history of democratic and/or egalitarian thought in the CEE region, CEE democracies before WWII, democratic social movements in the region, sociological aspects of democracy, democracy in visual arts, literature or popular culture, region’s philosophical contributions to the democratic theory, change and/or continuity in terms of popular attitudes to democracy, history of national and regional democratization.
We are looking for submissions of up to 2000 words, in line with our general submission guidelines and our style guide.
We welcome both completed pieces and idea pitches. To submit, please email us at ceeaffairsreview@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is May 14, 2023. In the subject line, please put a concise topic of the submission and the section(s) it is intended for, e.g. ‘Submission_The Future of Hungarian Democracy_Politics & International Relations’. In the body of the email, please indicate the section you are submitting to, as well as your name and affiliated academic institution. If you are pitching an idea for a prospective piece, please also include a short overview of what your piece is intended to be about, including the issues covered and the specific perspective taken.