The Centre for Democracy Research bundles the political scientific research at AUB. In the framework of the emphases defined by the university’s research strategy, the Centre concentrates on the transformation processes in the region and on questions about European integration.

Projects on the following thematic areas stand in the focus:

Foundations of Democracy

The classical representative democracy is challenged by the effects of globalisation and the rise of new authoritarian systems in several ways. Successfully handling these challenges depends on an understanding of the fundamental values of democracy. For others, it means adapting institutions and political processes to the changed requirements. Consequent to this understanding of the problem, the projects of this thematic area deal with the normative foundations and the transformation processes of the modern democratic constitutional state as well as with the quality of democracy of international associations.

Quality of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe

The exploration of the increasing variety of democratic systems of rule in the region poses new, challenging demand of comparative democracy research. This thematic area involves developing concepts and instruments with which the quality and different gradients of implementation of the democratic system of rule can be grasped. For the other, interest is directed towards the political cultures and mentalities to illustrate the persistence and impact of historical factors.

New Forms of European Governance

The rounds of EU enlargement from 2004 and 2007 have greatly raised the level of heterogeneity of the community. In most of the new Member States, a general deficit in governance exists due to the poorly establish capacities of the state and civil society as well as administrative centralisation. The projects in this thematic area serve to identify existing gaps in the governance structure of the region as well as in the bordering Balkan states, and develop innovative instruments to overcome them. A particular interest is held for the European strategy for the Danube region. For one, a conceptional contribution should be made for the registration and permeation of macro-regional strategies. For the other, with the help of case studies, the concepts can be inspected and the efficiency and problem solving ability of the Danube Region Strategy can be evaluated.

Further information is available only in German.