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Andrea Peto: The Illiberal Polypore State and its Science Policy

By analyzing illiberal science policy, our Research Affiliate Andrea Peto presents “a new theoretical framework which can be applied to other policy fields” in her chapter in The Many Faces of the Far Right in the Post-Communist Space – A Comparative Study of Far-Right Movements and Identity in the Region, published by the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) at Sodertorn University.

She claims that “science policy, as a national competency with an international character, is especially suited to spearhead illiberalization efforts because it offers something no other policy field can offer: academic authorization,” and adds that “members of the scientific professions were totally unprepared for the vicious personal attacks that have become the new normal in illiberal states.”

“The crucial question is what the representatives of polypore institutions will meet with: appeasement in the European context once they bring lavish financial state support into the proposed cooperation, or rejection and despair. If the latter is the case, then the polypore will quite possibly infect other institutions with its Machiavellian approach to values and morals sooner rather than later,” she concludes

Read the study here (pp 33-42).

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