The Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS) has released its Spring 2009 Bulletin .  The issue analyzes the “politics of hope” through the legacy of the nonviolent revolutions of 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe as political movements that managed to dismantle authoritarian regimes without bloodshed.

The issue presents an excerpt from author Jonathan Schell’s 2008 speech at The New School as part of a conference “1989 and Beyond: The Future of Democracy.” He comments on the current prospects of nonviolent, pro-democracy movements. Additionally, the issue features a recent conversation between two former dissidents and leaders of their respective democratic oppositions, Vaclav Havel and Adam Michnik.

Building on The New School for Social Research's interdisciplinary tradition, the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies (TCDS) creates and conducts cross-departmental research and training programs aimed at addressing special needs and opportunities for graduate study and advanced scholarship in the new global world. TCDS's programs focus on the problems of democratic institutional design at the local, national, and regional levels, in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and North America.