Ivan Krastev
is a Bulgarian political scientist, Chairman of the Board of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Permanent Fellow at the Institute for Human Science, Vienna, and a member of the Editorial Board of Transit -- Europäische Revue. He is editor of The Anti-American Century (with Alan McPherson), Budapest 2007.
Eurozine Articles
The transparency delusion
Disillusionment with democracy founded on mistrust of business and political elites has prompted a popular obsession with transparency. But the management of mistrust cannot remedy voters' loss of power and may spell the end for democratic reform. [Romanian version added] [more]
The politics of no alternatives
An interview with Gleb Pavlovsky
Gleb Pavlovsky, erstwhile political advisor to Vladimir Putin, whose election campaigns he masterminded in 2000 and 2004, talks to "Transit" about the workings of power in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia. [Hungarian version added] [more]
Democratic, can travel
The Russian regime's abandonment of the ideology of public interest prevents it being measured against its own standards, while its policy of open borders diffuses protest from a dissatisfied middle class. Ivan Krastev on reasons for authoritarianism's tenacity. [Hungarian version added] [more]
The European dis-Union
Lessons from the Soviet collapse
Too big to fail? Too crisis-hardened to go under? The collapse of the Soviet Union has something to teach Europe's politicians if another leap from the unthinkable to the inevitable is to be avoided in the case of the EU, argues Ivan Krastev. [more]
The sense of an ending
Blatantly rigged elections are the easiest way for the Putin regime to mimic the authoritarian power it does not possess. December's protests destroyed Putin's reputation of being in control; even genuinely competitive elections would be unable to restore his legitimacy. [more]
The EU: The real sick man of Europe?
Democratic deficit, enlargement fatigue and ever more rescue funds: is there still a future for a common Europe? In a discussion in Eurozine's series "Europe talks to Europe", prominent intellectuals diagnosed causes for the current malaise of the EU. [more]
The populist moment
Unlike the extremist parties of the 1930s, the new populist movements do not aim to abolish democracy: quite the opposite, writes Ivan Krastev. What we are witnessing is a conflict between elites suspicious of democracy and increasingly illiberal publics. [more]
The crisis of the post-Cold War European order
Ivan Krastev argues that a policy of engagement focused on national interest and a radical turn from value-based foreign policy to nineteenth century Realpolitik is not a workable option for relations between Russia and the West. [more]


















