Research project CITDEM - Contestations of citizenship in contexts of democratic backsliding: lessons from post-communist Europe The collaborative CITDEM project advances our understanding of how citizenship changes when democratic governance becomes a façade veiling populist and authoritarian political objectives. Print Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Visit the dedicated Project Website → This project has received funding via the CIVICA Research call 2022, which is funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under the CIVICA Research project. Additionally, CIVICA research projects receive financing from national funding sources and partners' own resources. While post-Communist European countries have been the site of stalling democratization and rising backsliding, this is the first project to explore the consequences of backsliding on the evolution of citizenship regimes. This project begins by identifying and studying three mechanisms—identity politics, electoral politics, and judicial constraints—that connect citizenship regime stability and change with political regime transformation ‘away from democracy’. Our project will offer a novel account of:how the institutionalisation of citizenship regimes reconstructs ‘spaces of identity’, both as attachments and political practice;how the political conception of citizenship as the lifeblood of democracy is constructed, contested, to serve the political objectives of illiberal political elites (e.g., electoral constituency manipulation); andhow the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion become filtered through institutional dynamics (e.g., court rulings). The team Group members Joe Higton Student London School of Economics Emily Schultheis MA graduate in Nationalism Studies Central European University (CEU) View Vuk Uskokovic Research Associate Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies View Vuk Uskokovic profile Lucas Van Der Baaren Visiting Fellow Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies View Lucas Van Der Baaren profile External Partners Hungary, Austria Central European University (CEU) Visit website https://www.ceu.edu/ United Kingdom London School of Economics (LSE) Visit website https://www.lse.ac.uk/