How low can you go? Declining standards of democracy in Central and Eastern Europe

In our second House Lecture delivered virtually on 2 February 2021 by our inaugural Rising Star Award winner, Veronica Anghel, we explored threats to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe.

Following this instalment, the House Lecture series will continue to present fascinating talks that seek to open doors to some of the most pressing issues and challenges in political science today, from a broad range of perspectives.

The House Lectures in brief

In line with our overarching mission, the House Lectures aim to help break down barriers in European political science, to provide a platform for discourse and to reach out beyond academe and shine a light on the work of our discipline.

• Inspired by Harbour House, our HQ in the UK, which provides both a literal and metaphorical ‘home’ for the ECPR community
• Delivering insightful lectures on the hottest topics in political science and beyond
• Each followed by an extended Q&A sessions
• Open to all, ECPR members and non-members

About the speaker

Veronica Anghel is an early career researcher focusing on the challenges to democratic regime building and party politics in post-communist Europe and the winner of our inaugural Rising Star Award which celebrates outstanding PhD students and early career scholars considered to have a particularly promising future in the field of politics and international relations.

Veronica received her PhD summa cum laude from the University of Bucharest in co-direction with the University of Bordeaux, where her dissertation won the prize for being the best presented in 2018. She had been previously awarded fellowships at Stanford University (Fulbright), the Institute for Human Sciences Vienna, the Institute for Central Europe Vienna, the University of Bordeaux and the Institute for Government in Vienna. Her work is published in East European Politics and Societies, Government & Opposition, Survival and in edited volumes with Oxford University Press, Macmillan and ECPR Press. She is also the ‘Robert Elgie’ Editorial Fellow for Government & Opposition.

Veronica also worked as a foreign affairs advisor for the Romanian Presidential Administration and the Romanian Senate, and was selected by the US Department of State in the International Visitor Leadership Program. She comments on current affairs related to rule of law and party politics in Central Eastern Europe for numerous blogs and news outlets (Encompass-Europe.com, Presidential-Power.com, The Guardian, Financial Times, etc.) and analysis units (The Economist Intelligence Unit, Oxford Analytica, etc).