“The Struggle for Good Governance in Eastern Europe” is the title of a collection of studies and analyzes centering on the Eastern Partnership countries that is at its second edition. The authors speak about “the spectacular ascension and questionable accomplishments of Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine, the rise and fall of the pro-Russian domination of Igor Dodon in Moldova, the deterioration of democracy in Georgia saved by the EU’s mediation from the oligarchic state capture and the coming of Nikol Pashinian to power in Armenia, under the threat of a loss in the second war in Nagorno-Karabakh”.

This is an update of texts dating back three years and of new materials, which allows for a comparative analysis of the state of affairs. The collection forms part of a broader project devoted to the three association and deep and comprehensive free trade agreements with the EU that were signed by Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine in 2014. The authors consider these three countries and also Armenia can be considered “semi-democracies”.

At the same time, noting that the trends in democracy became more varied the past few years, Richard Youngs, a researcher at Carnegie Europe, at the start of the book says the demarcation of democracy is no longer between the EU member states and the non-EU member states. Currently, both of the sides have players that attempt to undermine the democratic quality and also players that endeavor to protect and ensure the advancement of democratic norms. For their part, these players include civil society organizations, political parties, protesters and government officials, with each of these producing multiple effects to the benefit or to the detriment of democracy.

The authors of the collection “The Struggle for Good Governance in Eastern Europe” include IPN’s senior contributor Dionis Cenușa, associated expert of “Expert-Grup” Think Tank and a political scientist, researcher at the University of Giessen, and Elena Prohnitski, researcher at the Legal Resource Center from Moldova.