Hybrid regimes

The EU's democracy promotion has shifted from a challenge of passing reforms to one of making them last. To strengthen democratic resilience in its eastern neighbourhood, the bloc must invest more in trust, civic participation and local ownership.

The EU is still seen as the Western Balkans’ anchor for stability and modernisation. But where reforms remain invisible and institutions remain captured, European support risks strengthening expectations without delivering democratic trust.

Georgia’s path toward Europe is unfolding under conditions of deepening authoritarian drift. Drawing on original survey data and fieldwork, this paper examines how deficits in social and institutional trust shape democratic resilience, mediate EU democracy promotion, and condition citizens’ engagement with reform in a hybrid and geopolitically contested environment

Why does democratic reform in Moldova remain fragile despite strong support for Europe? This paper argues that a gap between social and institutional trust sustains hybrid governance and shapes how reforms and EU engagement are perceived, drawing on original survey data and analysis of EU-funded projects