Budapest Forum (16-17/09/2021)
On September 16-17, 2021, Budapest Municipality, Political Capital, and CEU Democracy Institute held the inaugural Budapest Forum for Building Sustainable Democracies, intending to establish a new annual event. The conference, which brings together domestic and foreign experts, journalists, activists, and policymakers, provided a forum for strategic thinking on our era's critical political, social, economic, and environmental transformations affecting Hungary, the wider region, and the whole world.
During the two-day conference, we covered the following topics:
- democratic sustainability: rebuilding and consolidating democracy in the age of populism;
- social and economic sustainability: addressing inequalities during and after the coronavirus epidemic;
- environmental sustainability: the need for bold policies to accelerate the green transition;
- technological sustainability: policy responses to rapid technological change and public health challenges;
Our partners were: Heinrich Böll Foundation, ERSTE Foundation, Center For European Policy Analysis, National Democratic Institute, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, Graphisoft Park, Green European Foundation, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Budapest, Embassy of Germany in Budapest, International Republican Institute, and Open Society Foundations.
The final program of the Budapest Forum is available here.
Click here to reach the website of the conference.
Our pieces about the panels:
- Beyond Dystopian Visions: Social Media for the Public Good
- Sister cities: Wolf warrior diplomacy in a sheep’s clothing
- Overcoming tribalism and pernicious polarization
- Defeating Authoritarianism, Bottom-up: Best Practices
- Should Mayors Rule the World: Democracy, Trust, and Citizen Engagement on the Local Level
- Responding to the Chinese Communist Party’s Strategies of Subnational Influence
- A small tour of Europe – the lenses of Green Cities
- Presentation on Strategic Foresight
- People Power vs. the Climate Crisis
- Towards Polycentric Governance: Building Room for Democratic Experimentalism in the Political, Urban and Corporate World
- Rebooting Transatlantic Relations
- After the Fall – A conversation with Ben Rhodes’
- A new vision for Europe: where should the EU be heading?
- European Cities as Democratic Strongholds?
- The Future of Healthcare in a Post-Pandemic World
- Angrynomics and Ways to Strengthen the Economic Bases of Democracies
- Lessons of the Past for Understanding the Future
- Urban Solutions and Smart City Development
- City Diplomacy – a New Tool for Democracy Promotion?
Our podcasts about the Budapest Forum:
- This is how they put Budapest on the world conference map (in Hungarian)
- Why should we be concerned by authoritarian economic influence? (in English)
The entire conference is available online:
