Informal Institutions, Republicanism, and the Origins of Competitive Politics: The Puzzle of ‘Machiavellian Moments’ in Post-Soviet Eurasia The project is devoted to the new interpretation of political development, democracy, and republicanism in the post-Soviet region. I look for an answer to the crucial question: how democratic breakthroughs could occur in post-Soviet Eurasia and in countries […]

Across the world, democratic backsliding has a gendered face. Autocratising regimes do not simply roll back women's rights as a side effect of their political projects — they strategically deploy opposition to gender equality as a core mechanism of democratic erosion. Drawing on a decade of collaborative research, we show how autocratic-leaning leaders mobilise a […]