News
New book publication by Michael Dobbins and Eduard Klein
This textbook, edited by Michael Dobbins and Eduard Klein, offers a comprehensive overview of Ukraine’s political history and current domestic politics. Renowned Ukrainian and international scholars analyze the tension between (re)democratization and (re)authoritarianism, as well as the driving forces behind the political and economic progress achieved since the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution. The book offers in-depth insights into the interplay between political institutions and parties, civil society and political elites, as well as various territorial and economic interest groups throughout Ukraine’s process of transformation and European integration. The 17 thematic chapters address specific research questions and systematically examine theories, concepts, and paradigms from political science and policy analysis.
Available from Springer at:
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-14667-0
New Project Managed by Michael Dobbins, Halyna Leontiy and Felix Schimansky-Geier
Project Title
Identifying and Combating Russia's Propaganda (ICORPD)
Funding Organization
Federal Foreign Office, ÖPR Program (Strengthening Cooperation with Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia)
Our project initiative focuses on Russian disinformation as part of the hybrid warfare that Russia has been deliberately waging against Ukraine and its allies since the early 2000s. Its strategies include cyberattacks, propaganda on social media platforms, and support for extremist parties abroad. Despite preliminary work by the Federal Foreign Office, Germany still lacks a comprehensive strategy to combat Russian disinformation.
In Ukraine, Russian disinformation campaigns also aim to destabilize, divide, and undermine trust in the state. The dissemination of false reports is intended to fuel internal mistrust and weaken resilience.
Against this backdrop, our project has set itself the goal of implementing concrete measures to strengthen democratic resilience in Germany and Ukraine. By analyzing disinformation efforts and examining narratives, we aim to identify the most significant sources of Russian disinformation and, based on this analysis, develop proposals to strengthen resilience. In this context, a multilingual online platform for the creation and dissemination of objective fact sheets will be established and made accessible to the general public. The scientific findings will be complemented by public events in Germany and Ukraine, which will feature expert presentations and panel discussions.
Link to th project website and previous public events:
New Publication by Michael Dobbins
Journal of Contemporary European Studies (2026)
Backsliding lobbying: how can post-communist interest groups better navigate democratic regression?
This article examines how interest groups sustain political inclusion under democratic backsliding. While existing research documents how organized interests respond to a shrinking civic space, evidence on which strategies succeed remains limited. Using original survey data from over 400 interest groups operating in Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovenia, the article evaluates three responses to democratic regression: organizational professionalization, inter-organizational cooperation, and engagement at the European level. The findings show that democratic backsliding creates a more polarized and exclusionary lobbying environment, disadvantaging ideologically non-aligned groups and reinforcing clientelistic access patterns. However, exclusion is neither automatic nor uniform. Multivariate analyses demonstrate that organizational strategies significantly shape inclusion outcomes. Professionalization consistently improves access across contexts, though its benefits are more limited for oppositional organizations where governments selectively subsidize allied actors. Inter-organizational cooperation proves the most robust strategy, enabling even regime-critical groups to reduce or eliminate inclusion gaps, including where deliberative institutions have eroded. European-level engagement does not directly enhance national inclusion but has important indirect effects by promoting learning, domestic cooperation and professionalization. The article advances research on interest groups and democratic backsliding by shifting focus from adaptation to effectiveness and highlighting the constrained yet persistent agency of organized interests under democratic erosion.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14782804.2026.2684984
New Publication by Michael Dobbins
"A Wartime Reform Powerhouse? Exploring Legislative Output in Post-Maidan Ukraine"
Die Regierungen der Ukraine haben nach dem Euromaidan fast 50 größere Reformen durchgeführt, die die politische und wirtschaftliche Landschaft des Landes grundlegend verändert haben. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden diese Reformen hinsichtlich ihrer Tiefe und ideologischen Ausrichtung untersucht und kategorisiert. Zu diesem Zweck unter zieht der Autor alle wichtigen Gesetze, die den Status quo verändern, einer Inhaltsana lyse unter Verwendung der analytischen Kategorien des Comparative Manifesto Project. Die Studie zeigt, dass die Ukraine umfangreiche Maßnahmen zur Marktliberalisierung voran getrieben, die regulativen Rahmenbedingungen gestärkt, robuste Institutionen zur Kor ruptionsbekämpfung geschafen und gleichzeitig die Verwaltungsefzienz gesteigert hat. Diese großangelegten Maßnahmen wurden durch umfassende Reformen in den Berei chen Dezentralisierung, Justiz, Bildung, Gesundheit und Umwelt ergänzt. Trotz Krieg und Krise hat die Ukraine einen konsequenten Modernisierungskurs beibehalten, wobei sie einer EU-konformen Regierungsführung, der Verringerung des Einfusses der Oligarchen und der Verbesserung des Zugangs zu Bildung Vorrang eingeräumt hat.
Енергійний реформатор у воєнний час?
Аналіз законодавчих дій України після Майдану Після Євромайдану уряди України провели майже 50 масштабних реформ, які кардинально змінили політичний та економічний ландшафт країни. У статті досліджуються та класифі куються результати цих реформ з точки зору глибини та ідеологічного спрямування. З цією метою автор проводить контент-аналіз усіх важливих законів, що змінюють статус-кво, використовуючи аналітичні категорії Comparative Manifesto Project. Дослідження показує, що Україна здійснила масштабні заходи з лібералізації ринку, посилила регуляторну базу, створила міцні інституції для боротьби з корупцією і водночас підвищила ефективність управління. Ці масштабні заходи були доповнені комплексними реформами в сферах де централізації, юстиції, освіти, охорони здоров’я та екології. Незважаючи на війну та кризу, Україна дотримувалася послідовного курсу на модернізацію, надаючи пріоритет управлін ню, що відповідає стандартам ЄС, зменшенню впливу олігархів та поліпшенню доступу до освіти.
Open Access: https://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_9226.ahtml
New Publication by Michael Dobbins and Rafael Labanino
Regulation and Governance (2025)
"From agents of the people to agents of authority? How illiberal populism impacts interactions between regulatory agencies and external stakeholders"
The decline in democratic quality and the increasing electoral popularity of illiberal populist parties are among the most notable global phenomena in the past 20 years. This article builds a bridge between the growing body of political science literature addressing how democratic backsliding impacts linkages between governments and organized interests and the public administration literature exploring how illiberal populists reshape the bureaucracy. Focusing on regulatory agencies in four post-communist countries that have recently experienced varying degrees of democrating backsliding, we explore whether and how interactions between bureaucrats and interest groups have changed amid democratic decline. We find that even in the context of backsliding, professionalization (i.e. internal organizational development) and expertise provision are strong positive predictors of interest groups' access to regulators. However, our analysis unequivocally shows that exclusion by illiberal populist incumbent parties has a profound and negative effect on organizations' ability to reach bureaucracies. We draw on a new survey dataset, which grasps relationships between organized interests and political institutions (i.e. governments, parties, regulatory agencies, parliaments) in the region.
Open Access: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/rego.12631
New Book Publication by Michael Dobbins
The contributions to this anthology were written by recognized experts in political science specializing in Eastern European studies and offer a comprehensive overview of Ukraine’s political history. The authors analyze the tension between (re)democratization and (re)authoritarianism, as well as the significant political and economic progress made since the Euromaidan Revolution. The book offers fascinating insights into the interplay between political institutions and parties, civil society and political elites, as well as various territorial and economic constellations of interests in the course of Ukraine’s challenging post-communist transformation and European integration processes. The authors also analyze current developments in four critical policy areas: economic policy, education policy, social policy, and energy policy. With its deliberate focus on domestic political dynamics, the book demonstrates that modern Ukraine is much more than just a battleground for geopolitical ambitions: it is a European cultural nation with a stirring and heart-wrenching past—and present—that, despite countless tragic episodes, is characterized by an admirable will to survive and democratize, as well as unique political dynamics.
Available from Springerh: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-47476-8
The chapter "Die politische Geschichte der Ukraine: eine lange, aber unentbehrliche Einleitung" is open access under a Creative Commons 4.0 International Licence.