In his presentation Professor Ekiert will analyze the uneven path of political and economic transformations across countries of the former Soviet bloc during the past 25 years. He will offer some potential explanations for various fates these countries have experienced, emphasizing the role of historical legacies in shaping the outcomes of economic, social and political reforms. He will also discuss the EU crisis, unraveling of the pro-European consensus in Visegrad countries and challenges facing the region today.
Grzegorz Ekiert is professor of government, Director of CES, and Senior Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. His teaching and research interests focus on comparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society and social movements, and East European politics and societies.
He is the author of The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe (1996); Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland (with J. Kubik, 1999); Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule (co-edited with S. Hanson, 2003); editor of special issues of East European Politics and Societies on the “EU Eastward Enlargement” (with J. Zielonka, 2003) and of “Democracy in the Postcommunist World” (2007) and Taiwan Journal of Democracy on “A Liberal Challenge? Civil Society and Grass-root Politics in New Democracies” (with S. Kim, 2013). He is also co-editor of Open Forum—the interactive CES working papers series.
His current projects explore civil society development in new democracies in Central Europe and East Asia and patterns of transformations in post-communist world.
