AUTHLIB

Several fascinating talks on the crisis of liberal democracy

Mapping the Illiberal Challenge (AUTHLIB Final Conference) - YouTube As Europe confronts the rise of illiberalism across the continent and graples with its political and societal consequences, the Horizon-funded Neo-authoritar...

💥30 presentations from top scholars tracing the roots & intellectual legacies of illiberal thought, exploring its contemporary manifestations, impact on democracy, party politics, discourse & governance are now available on our YouTube channel!

➡️ Check out the playlist: youtube.com/playlist?lis...

📽️ Have you missed our concluding conference mapping the illiberal challenge to liberal democracy in Europe held at the Central European University @weareceu.bsky.social earlier this month?

☝️ Worry not!

The Rise of Illiberal Challengers in Western Europe: Austria, Italy, and France in Comparative Perspective How do illiberal parties affect democracy in Western Europe? Join our discussion on January 26 (Monday) at 10:00 a.m. CET.

📢 AUTHLIB webinar

How do illiberals challenge democracy in Austria, Italy & France?

🗓️ Jan 26 |🕒 10:00 CET

🎙️Batuhan Eren (Scuola Normale Superiore), @caterinafr.bsky.social @sciencespo-cee.bsky.social, Sylvia Kritzinger (Uni Vienna) & @veghzsuzsanna.bsky.social @gmfus.bsky.social

👉 t.ly/DdE4e

European Responses to the Shrinking Spaces of Democracy How to counter illiberal attacks on civil society, media and human rights? Join our discussion on January 20 (Tuesday) at 3:00 p.m. CET.

📢 How do illiberal actors shrink democratic space in the EU—and what can be done?
Join our @authlibeu.bsky.social panel discussion on media freedom, civil society & gender equality with Mila Moshelova, Konrad Bleyer-Simon & Zsuzsanna Vegh

📅 Jan 20, 2026 15:00 CET
RSVP www.authlib.eu/shrinking-sp...

📣 𝗨𝗽𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗩𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁: European Responses to the Shrinking Spaces of Democracy
🗓️ Tuesday, 20 January 2026
⏰ 09:00–10:30 ET / 15:00–16:30 CET
📍Online

🔗 Register here: www.gmfus.org/event/europe...

European Responses to the Shrinking Spaces of Democracy How to counter illiberal attacks on civil society, media and human rights? Join our discussion on January 20 (Tuesday) at 3:00 p.m. CET.

📢 How do illiberal actors shrink democratic space in the EU—and what can be done?

Join our discussion on media freedom, civil society & gender equality with @ksimon.bsky.social @danielhegedus.bsky.social & Mila Moshelova

🗓️ Jan 20, 2026 | 🕒 15:00 CET
👉 Register: www.authlib.eu/shrinking-sp...

How Terror Attacks Shape Political Agendas on Multiculturalism in France | Article | Politics and Governance Elena Cossu, Caterina Froio

🔎 Want to go deeper?

Read the journal article "How Terror Attacks Shape Political Agendas on Multiculturalism in France" by Elena Cossu and @caterinafr.bsky.social @sciencespo-cee.bsky.social published in Politics and Governance!

Open access ⤵️ www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandg...

How Terror Attacks Pushed French Politics Closer to the Far Right Elena Cossu (Sciences Po) shows how terror attacks shaped the political sphere in their aftermath in France.

💥 New AUTHLIB Blog

How do terror attacks reshape political debate? Elena Cossu @sciencespo-cee.bsky.social shows how attacks in France pushed mainstream parties closer to far-right positions on multiculturalism.

Read more 👉 www.authlib.eu/how-terror-a...

It was a great pleasure to speak at the “Mapping the Illiberal Challenge” closing conference of @authlibeu.bsky.social at the CEU.
Presenting the key arguments and recommendations of my upcoming policy paper, “How to Better Protect and Support Civil Society in the EU?”, I argued for:
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The final @authlibeu.bsky.social conference organized by amazing colleagues in Budapest. A project that meant a lot to me - it enabled me to study radical and extremist groups in CEE, while also further developing our team's research agenda on democratic innovations.

A great closing conference of the AUTHLIB @authlibeu.bsky.social at CEU in Budapest - thanks to all. The organizers and participants!

📣 As we conclude AUTHLIB in the coming weeks, stay with us for the roll-out of a set of exciting country and policy papers, showcasing the varieties of illiberal drivers and appeal across Europe, and our analysis and recommendations to address the illiberal challenge on the EU level.

🙏 And it's a wrap!
We have concluded our final academic conference with a keynote speech by Michael Ignatieff @weareceu.bsky.social

🔥 What's the role of liberalism in an illiberal age? Michael Ignatieff argued that democratic leadership & European unity serve as hope for the survival of democracy.

MORES - Home Explore MORES, a project studying how moral emotions in politics unite and divide society. See how research fosters dialogue and strengthens democracy.

🤝 The MORES - Moral Emotions in Politics @mores-project.bsky.social is an innovative research project exploring the role of moral emotions, values, and identities in politics. In doing so, it builds on AUTHLIB's work.

👉 Learn more and follow its social media channels: mores-horizon.eu

Giving a glimps into @mores-project.bsky.social, @zsolt-boda.bsky.social (Eötvös Loránd University) also joined the conference and shared insights into their ongoing work on moral emotions and populist governance.

Peter Kreko (Eötvös Loránd University) and Gábor Orosz (Flinders University) discussed the initial findings of their democratic inoculation experiment that is bridging AUTHLIB and the recently launched @mores-project.bsky.social.

😱 Emotions play a central role in political communication and are used by political actors to mobilize.

🧐 AUTHLIB's team at the Oxford Uni, led by Stephen Whitefield, who presented the results of the team's lab experiments, studied the effects of emotional appeal on illiberal beliefs and behavior.

Illiberal Politics in Europe Thematic Issue, Vol 13 (2025)

📖 Learn more about illiberal politics in Europe!

Check AUTHLIB's Politics and Governance special issue: www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandg...

The panel closed with the presentation of Bálint Mikola @weareceu.bsky.social of his joint work with Péter Radó (Eötvös Loránd University, CEU) that assessed how illiberalism transforms social and educational policies in Central Europe.

Following her intervention, Eva Fodor @weareceu.bsky.social explored the how gender issues are targeted and instrumentalized by illiberal forces.

❗ Illiberal forces impact policies and institutions. AUTHLIB studied their influence across various policy areas.

🔥 Mieke Verloo (Radboud University) analyzed how illiberals influence knowledge production and research in service of their authoritarian agenda creating a mutually reinforcing cycle.

AUTHLIB researchers from the Charles University organized the first forum of ideological opponents in Liberec

🗣️ Read more about one of AUTHLIB's deliberative fora, the Ideological Opponents' Forum here: www.authlib.eu/authlib-ideo...

@petraguasti.bsky.social @charlesuni.cuni.cz shared how various forms of deliberation tested in the framework of AUTHLIB impacts polarization and whether it has the potential to change people's views in ideologically charged as well as locally sensitive matters.

⚠️ @danielhegedus.bsky.social @gmfus.bsky.social discussed the illiberal challenge to democratic civil society in Europe and put forward elaborate EU-level recommendations to protect and strengthen the sector.
Stay tunedned for the paper!

💡 Moving from theory to practice, AUTHLIB put forward recommendations to counter illiberal chalenges to democracy and strengthen liberal democracy in Europe.

YouTube video by AUTHLIB The Transnationalization of the Illiberal Right

📽️ Interested in this issue?
Watch the discussion of the SNS team's early results here: youtu.be/iU-YwtHn05E?...

Zsolt Enyedi @zsolt.bsky.social @weareceu.bsky.social talked about the "illiberal international" exploring the elite-level cooperation identifying key nods and mapping ideological differences among illiberal groups.

🔗 Batuhan Eren and Manuela Caiani @sns.it presented their main takeaways from their research on the growing connections among far right parties, movements, and civic actors across borders and the ongoing transnational learning among them.