Grzegorz Ekiert
Grzegorz Ekiert is Professor of Government and Senior Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. His teaching and research interests focus on comparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society and social movements, and East European politics and societies.
Career
Ekiert is a native of Poland. He graduated with a MA in sociology from Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Kraków in 1980. He completed his PhD in sociology at Harvard University in 1991. He was a lecturer in sociology at Uniwersytet Jagiellonski (1980-1984). Since 1991, he has been a member of the faculty at Harvard's Department of Government. He was Jean Monet Fellow at the European University Institute (2001-2002), The 21st Century COE Program Fellow at Hokkaido University (2007), Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at European University Institute (2009-2010) and a Visiting Fellow at Collegio Carlo Alberto (2010).
Publications
He is the author of The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe (1996), Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, with (Jan Kubik 1999) that was awarded the Orbis Book prize by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies and Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule, (co-edited with Stephen Hanson 2003). He co-edited (with Jan Zielonka) a special issue of East European Politics and Societies on the EU Eastward Enlargement (2003) and edited another special issue of East European Politics and Societies on Democracy in Postcommunist World (2007). His papers appeared in numerous social science journals and edited volumes. His current projects explore patterns of civil society development in new democracies in Central Europe and East Asia, the state of democracy in postcommunist world, and the EU membership impact on postcommunist democracies.
Ekiert is Director of the Center for European Studies at Harvard, and Senior Faculty Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. He is also a member of the Club of Madrid Advisory Committee.
Ekiert assessing the history of the liberum veto in the Kingdom of Poland, 1569-1795, concludes:
- The principle of the liberum veto preserved the feudal features of Poland's political system, weakened the role of the monarchy, led to anarchy in political life, and contributed to the economic and political decline of the Polish state. Such a situation made the country vulnerable to foreign invasions and ultimately led to its collapse. [1]
Education
M.A. Jagiellonian University, Poland, Institute of Sociology (1980); M.A. Harvard University, Department of Sociology (1987); Ph.D. Harvard University, Department of Sociology (1991)
Research interests
Comparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society, collective action and social movements, and East European politics and society.
Current projects
The logic of civil society in new democracies (Hungary, Poland, South Korea and Taiwan). This collaborative project is a rigorous empirical study of civil society development and its impact on the quality of democracy in newly democratized states. It investigates changing civil society structure and activities employing a protest event analysis.
Building democracy and market economy in post communist Europe. This project examines the patterns of post communist transformations and evaluates debates and theories developed in comparative politics and political sociology in order to explain consorting outcomes of post communist transitions.
Selected publications
Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule, (co-editor Stephen Hanson), Cambridge University Press, 2003
Rebellious Civil Society. Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland, (co-author Jan Kubik, Rutgers University) University of Michigan Press 1999
The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe, Princeton University Press 1996
“Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe 100 years On,” (co-author Daniel Ziblatt), forthcoming in: East European Politics and Societies 2012
“The End of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe: The Last Middle Class Revolution?” in: Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 21, 2010, pp. 99-123.
“Dilemmas of Europeanization: Eastern and Central Europe after the EU Enlargement, Acta Slavica Iaponica 2008, vol. 25, pp. 1-28
“Democracy in Postcommunist World: An Unending Quest,” co-authors Jan Kubik and Milada Anna Vachudova), East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 21: 1, 2007, pp. 1-24.
"Introduction: Academic Boundaries and Path Dependencies Facing The EU's Eastward Enlargement," (co-author Jan Zielonka) special issue of East European Politics and Societies, 2003, pp. 2-19.
"The State after State Socialism: Poland in Comparative Perspective," in: The Nation-State in Question, edited by John Hall and John Ikenberry, Princeton University Press 2003, pp. 291-320.
"Contentious Politics in New Democracies: Hungary, the former East Germany, Poland and Slovakia," (co-author Jan Kubik), World Politics (July 1998) 50, 4, pp. 547-581
Notes
- ↑ Grzegorz Ekiert, “Veto, Liberum,” in Seymour Martin Lipset, ed. ‘’The Encyclopedia of Democracy’’ (1998) 4:1341