The Master’s Programme in Southeast European Studies: Politics, History, Economics invites you to a guest lecture with the title: “Democratization and De-democratization in the Western Balkans”. The lecture is organised on the framework of the course Political Change, Democracy and Crisis in Southeast Europe, taught by Professor Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos. The guest lecture will be held on Friday 12 December at 5:30 pm. Classroom 2 (Second floor, 42-44 Aiolou str.)

Guest Speaker: Dr. Jovan Teokarević, Retired Professor, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade , Guest Professor, College of Europe, Natolin College, Warsaw

Dr. Jovan Teokarević was professor of Comparative Politics at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade, Serbia (2002-2023), and is currently visiting professor at the College of Europe, Natolin Campus, Warsaw (since 2016). He also used to teach previously for many years about the Balkans at the NATO Defence College in Rome and at the Master Program of the University of Vienna. His research, published in 7 authored and 12 edited books, has focused on: post-communist transition, politics in the Balkans, EU and NATO enlargement and EU-Western Balkans relations. Before joining the University of Belgrade, he had worked for 20 years as research fellow of the Belgrade-based Institute for European Studies. He was also founder and Director of the Belgrade Centre for European Integration, Serbia’s academic coordinator of the international master program in Southeast European Studies (done with the University of Graz), and Chairman of the Governing Board of the Open Society Foundation Serbia.

Abstract: The lecture is about the recent parallel processes of democratization and de democratization in the Western Balkans. In the first part a comparative view of these processes in all countries of the region is offered, and some common features are presented. In the second part the focus is on Serbia, where a specific Serbian path towards autocracy is first explained, during the 13-year rule of the current government. The lecture ends with the analysis of the ongoing students’ protests in Serbia.