Open Society New Response Projects

Focus Areas

Application Guidelines  |  Grantee List

Political developments in the 10 countries of East Central Europe (CEE) since their accession into the European Union demonstrate that well after two decades of transition, they still cannot be considered established open societies governed by consolidated liberal democracies. Anti-democratic values, intolerance and populism in various forms continue to thrive, constituting a serious concern to the openness of these societies and their democratic governance. Public discourse in some of the new EU member states has taken a particularly negative turn with attacks against vulnerable groups and minority communities as well as against NGOs promoting tolerance and accountability. Debates on issues such as immigration and security within EU member states exacerbate negative discourses at local level. Furthermore, in the region’s last elections for European and national parliaments, nationalist and xenophobic political parties gained unprecedented levels of popular support. Challenges to traditional welfare entitlements exacerbated by recent financial difficulties, combined with changes in socio-cultural profiles of societies due to migration and global trade has intensified feelings of uncertainty and a sense of powerlessness for many groups across European societies.

The overall quality of democracy in these countries has decreased after their accession into the EU. A quick comparison between the indices in 2007, the year when Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU, with those in 2010 reveals that the quality of democracy has decreased in all eastern European countries that joined the EU recently, except for Estonia where it has stagnated. In 2004 four out of ten eastern EU Member States could be considered consolidated democracies3, while the rest were optimistically expected to soon join the same ranks. On the contrary, in 2010 only Estonia and Slovenia ranked as consolidated democracies. At the bottom of the list, Romania and Bulgaria are still considered transitional democracies with scores closer to their Western Balkan neighbors rather than their EU peers. Meanwhile, the remaining six CEE countries have been stuck as semi-consolidated democracies for almost a decade now.

In 2006, the Think Tank Fund launched Open Society New Response Projects to support established policy centers in the region in confronting populist policies and addressing threats to open society. Over the last five years, the fund has underwritten some 40 initiatives from 30 organizations addressing a range of issues. These included policy responses to organized crime and governance in Bulgaria, advocacy for civil oversight of security agencies, regulation of the energy sector and economic governance in the Czech Republic, monitoring of and advocating for the regulation of political parties’ financing in Hungary, national strategies for minority integration and countering hate speech in Latvia, countering ethnic exclusion in Estonia, improving access to government in Lithuania, monitoring government performance and supporting the inclusion of women in politics in Poland, the regulation of lobbying activities and research into successful anti-corruption strategies in Romania, governance watch, researching and advocating for anti-corruption and transparency-improving measures and challenging populist politics in Slovakia.

Our support continues to be focused on the development and promotion of innovative policy research. Our priorities are activities connected to political and social issues critical to effective and accountable democratic governance and open society. The activities that we support consist of evidence-based policyrelevant research seamlessly combined with comprehensive communication its outcomes and advocacy of preferred policy alternatives. Given that relevant issues vary from one country to the next, the Fund considers proposals addressing threats to open society in various policy areas and proposals for new innovative types of interventions applicable in the context of the country in question. Some areas where we have seen a need for a concerted response include:

• Reinforcing responsive, responsible, accountable and transparent governance and regulation; including economic and law-enforcement governance;
• advancing monitoring and accountability systems, including preventing and tackling the state capture, cronyism and corruption; monitoring and developing policies on conflicts of interest and overlaps between politics and crime;
• transparency in relations between economic actors and politicians, examining party financing; promoting the rule of law, considering democratic accountability of security and law enforcement forces including the monitoring of hate-crime.
• Improving the quality of policy processes through evidence-based policy research and development for governmental institutions at the national level; supporting inclusive and layperson-accessible deliberation and communication of policies and reforms.
• Counteracting illiberal tendencies and promoting the mainstreaming of tolerance; supporting the protection of minority rights and inclusive participation and integration of various minorities in the governance of societies (including gender, ethnic, language, religious or im/migrant); encouraging vibrant intergroup relations and communication; tackling exclusionary partisan politics and polarization of societies.
• Supporting responsible civic participation and involvement of youth in policy processes, and increasing electoral turnout.
• Creating alternative discourses, suppressing unrealistic promises and demagogic rhetoric (e.g. through supporting quality investigative journalism including evidence-based reporting and monitoring; working with policy research outcomes and improving cooperation between policy research organizations and media).

This list however should not be taken as exhaustive or exclusive. While we have listed many issues that are relevant in some countries of the region, not all of these are relevant in each of the eligible countries. Successful applicants will contextualize their chosen problem well and argue about the validity and appropriateness of their suggested intervention in light of our priorities. If necessary, we invite prospective grantees to contact the Fund with questions on whether a given topic is of merit even before writing a concept paper. In all cases, the issues to be addressed should be important in the policy context of the applicant’s country and linked with the promotion of open society values.