Considerable material and human resources are devoted to building democratic institutions around the world. Why, then, do assistance programs fail to meet their proclaimed goals? And why aren't these programs changed or abandoned when they fail? Using US assistance to women's NGOs in postcommunist Ukraine as a case study, Kateryna Pishchikova shows why democracy promotion programs have a    More >

Why is neoliberalism winning out as a social policy in the European Union? Daniel Preece demonstrates how, despite the commitment to "Social Europe" that has been entrenched in the EU treaty framework since the late 1990s, neoliberal actors have successfully reframed the policy debates and affected the welfare policies adopted by the member states. Focusing on the cases of Germany and    More >

Why do democratic leaders sometimes choose not to establish institutions that would promote the consolidation of democracy? And what are the consequences of those choices? Focusing on the cases of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, John Scherpereel explores the interplay of historical institutional legacies, short-term elite interests, and international pressures (i.e., EU conditionality) in the    More >

Reconciling the imperatives of Germany’s national identity and its national interest has been a challenge for the country’s policymakers since the end of the Cold War. Anika Leithner explores how (and how much) the past continues to shape Germany’s foreign policy behavior in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Leithner argues that, while German foreign policy is still    More >