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Changing civil society dynamics are often interpreted as the state’s encroachment upon an autonomous sphere of democratic activity, presumed to be respected by liberal democratic regimes but violated by illiberal ones. The paper argues that such a normative autonomy/encroachment framework overlooks how illiberal civil society configurations are actively shaped by conflicts and structures carried over from liberal regimes.

Mihály Fazekas has published co-authored paper with CEU alumni, Bence Tóth, Johannes Wachs, and Aly Abdou on using machine learning for detecting cartels in public procurement in the International Journal of Industrial Organization. The article addresses the daunting challenge of identifying and countering price fixing, bid rigging and collusion among public procurement bidders across Europe.