Once a loose yet enthusiastic group of East-Central European post-communist countries, the Visegrad Group (V4) has progressively acquired the reputation of a Eurosceptic region where delayed nation-building processes and national identitarian discourses oppose and block European cohesion. Is such a label justified? While ethnic majoritarian goverments in Poland and Hungary have indeed backslided on democracy and rule of law, other cases such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia show that the region is not homogeneous.

The Eurosceptic label obscures the political plurality that is dissimulated by identitarian thinking. The webinar will focus on the Czech and Hungarian cases to discuss this diversity. It will think through ways to overcome democratic backsliding or stagnation, for instance, by greater regional mobility.

Speakers:

• Adam Balazs, Visiting Fellow, International History Department, Graduate Institute, Geneva and Fellow Researcher, Laboratoire de Changement Social et Politique (LCSP), Université de Paris (f. Paris 7 - Denis-Diderot)

• Ladislav Cabada, Metropolitan University Prague

• Grégoire Mallard, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology and Director of Research, Graduate Institute

Moderator: 

• Christine Lutringer, Senior Researcher and Executive Director, Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy