Zrcadlo minulosti: jak na (re)demokracii? (2026)

This Czech-language collection examines the exceptionally difficult transition from a totalitarian or authoritarian system to a democratic state governed by the rule of law. Such changes have never been achieved perfectly, and may be criticized either for being incomplete or for replacing one extreme with another. The book emphasizes that political systems are shaped and implemented by particular people, ranging from regime beneficiaries to ordinary citizens who live within the system without openly opposing it. Its ten contributions, written by leading specialists in law and political science, address de-democratization, the European Union’s role in restoring the rule of law, the development of Czechoslovakia, lustration processes in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and responses to the totalitarian past in pension law. Other chapters consider political developments and prospects in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, the ways democracy can restrict freedom of expression and the spread of disinformation, and Armenia’s journey from authoritarianism to democracy and back again.