The Democracy Seminars are our oldest initiative in the region,
originally proposed by Adam Michnik when he received an honorary
degree from the New School in 1984. Semi-clandestine when they
started in Warsaw and Budapest in the mid-80's, this loosely structured
network now functions in 17 cities and continues to provide a
forum for a sustained discussion on issues of the transition to
democracy. Between 1990 and 1996, the branches of the network
have met with differing regularity and intensity in the following
cities: New York (U.S.A.); Warsaw (Poland); Budapest (Hungary);
Bucharest and Cluj (Romania); Prague (Czech Republic); Bratislava
and Trnava, (Slovakia); Riga (Latvia); Sofia (Bulgaria); Tallinn
(Estonia); Lviv and Kiev (Ukraine); Belgrade (Yugoslavia), Vilnius
(Lithuania); Yerevan (Armenia); and Ljubljana (Slovenia). The
New York Seminar coordinates the autonomous agendas within the
network and facilitates an on-going interchange among its members.
A Democracy Seminar Working Paper Series
has been established to further facilitate this communication.
The activities of each Seminar are found in updates in the East
and Central Europe Program's Bulletin.Each
year ECEP organizes an annual International Democracy Seminar
conference. This meeting brings together members of the seminars
for presentations and discussions on the processes of democratization
in the region. The first Annual Seminar was held in Budapest in
1990. Since then it has been hosted by the Warsaw (twice), Sofia,
Prague and Bratislava chapters. The proceedings of the Seminars
are published in Grappling with Democracy:
Deliberations On Post-Communist Societies, (1990-1995), SLON Publishing,
Prague.