Current trends and challenges for political science in Central and Eastern Europe –

Introduction: Current trends and challenges for political science in Central and Eastern Europe

By Joanna Skrzypczynska, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań and Tatyana Ruseva, Appalachian State University, North Carolina

This Spotlight examines recent transformations in the field of political science in Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC), ¹ with a particular focus on Poland and Hungary. Recent trends in the political life of these countries provide a significant perspective for thinking about the relevance of political science for civil society and democratic policy-making. These trends further recognize the various “ways in which the political world helps and hinders our efforts to flourish as individuals and communities” in a region where the discipline of political science has traveled a moving path, moving from the subordination of state to rediscover within an increasingly integrated and internationalized education system (Schmidt 2019). Arguably, there are important trends and unique challenges for political science scholars and educators in the CEECs compared to their counterparts in North America and Western Europe. Our goal for this Spotlight is to highlight these issues.