Publications

In voter surveys, the German Greens regularly come out as the party deemed to have by far the greatest competency in this area and in energy policy as well. This study by Arne Jungjohann tries to answer if this image is justified, as it looks at the subnational level of the federal states.

After a four-year absence, the Active Youth (Aktív Fiatalok) Research Group has returned with a new survey about the political attitudes of higher education students in Hungary. The significance of this year’s findings relies on the fact that the political views of the majority of students sampled in this most recent survey – including some born as recently as 2000 – were formed during consecutive terms of prime minister Viktor Orbán and his government, considered by many political scientists and commentators to be a hybrid regime.

After a four-year absence, the Active Youth (Aktív Fiatalok) Research Group has returned with a new survey about the political attitudes of higher education students in Hungary. The significance of this year’s findings relies on the fact that the political views of the majority of students sampled in this most recent survey – including some born as recently as 2000 – were formed during consecutive terms of prime minister Viktor Orbán and his government, considered by many political scientists and commentators to be a hybrid regime.

Despite the presence of migration in the discourse of politicians, media and the general public in recent years, there is a persistent lack of facts about the life situations and motivations of newcomers to Europe. With this book the the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Institute for Public Affairs aim to contribute to a fact-based debate on the politics and policies of migration in Central Europe. 

Check the new think piece by social scientist Petr Lebeda. It is asking two questions: why has there been so strong an onset to this “populist backlash” against solidarity, equality, civil and minority rights, environmental responsibility and various forms of pluralism so fast and across so many countries and what might the NGOs advocating progressive policies do to address its deeper causes in the longer term?

Restless Cities: Lessons from Central Europe is a publication that reflects a year-long training programme of the Prague office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation focusing on understanding the political aspects of urban planning in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. It consists of four thematic chapters that offer introductions into each topic, short texts by selected invited experts, participants’ views, and key learnings about sustainability and politics. The authors of the texts are not just the experts who contributed to the training programme, but also the participants themselves share their learnings and views herein. We hope this book will help readers to understand the often-invisible areas where urban planning moves from the realm of expertise-only into the realm of political action and that it will inspire readers to further political learning and engagement.

The interpretation of the Hungarian “illiberal state,” in terms of political philosophy and political science outlines a set-up in which even though the constitutional institutions typical of democracies still formally exist, they however no longer function—even while occasionally adopting decisions that comply with constitutionality—as intended at the system level: Instead of serving as true checks on how the government wields power, they function as institutions stabilising the autocratic workings of the state. This paper aims to examine one of the crucial features of how “illiberal states” operate, namely populist and inflammatory government communication that seeks to make public debate hegemonistic and the closely related government actions intended to silence critical opinions, together with the legal instruments available to counter these things.

Romana Marková Volejníčková, Marie Pospíšilová and Alena Křížková from the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences, in cooperation with the Prague office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, have collaborated on the preparation of the Czech-language publication Gender a energetika (“Gender and the Energy Sector”). The English translation which you are now reading is an excerpt from this publication and contains the most significant research findings and recommendations in the individual thematic areas.

How far does Budapest's influence extend? How has the "refugee crisis" affected regional cooperation? This study gives background information, facts and data on the last three years of the “refugee crisis”: its social, political, policy and diplomatic repercussions. An analysis of the Orbán government’s rhetoric and policy measures with regard to refugee, asylum and migration issues, highlighting the regional context.