Team
The Global Forum project’s core team is at the CEU Democracy Institute in Budapest, Hungary.
Laszlo Bruszt is Professor Emeritus of CEU, Founding Co-Director and Director of CEU Democracy Institute between 2020 and 2025. He started to teach at CEU in 1992 and has served as its Acting Rector and President in 1996/97. Between 2004 and 2016 he was teaching at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. His publications focus on issues of regime change and economic transformation. His more recent studies deal with the politics of economic integration of the Eastern and Southern peripheries of Europe. He serves as the Program Director of the Global Forum on Democracy and Development and leads the Enlargement Hub.
David Karas is a French-Hungarian political economist working on developmental policies in emerging economies. He holds an MA in Comparative Politics from Sciences Po Paris, an MA in Nationalism Studies from CEU and a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the EUI. He has taught international political economy and IR to undergraduate and postgraduate students at OSF’s CSLA Fellowship program, Manipal University in India, the OSCE Academy in Bishkek, ELTE University in Hungary and Webster University in Vienna. At CEU DI, his postdoctoral research project examines how a pivot to Sub-Saharan Africa is reshaping the governance, normative content and power relations between public and private actors within the European Development Finance Architecture (EFAD). He is also the creator of Poliko Podcast which is a platform to showcase innovative empirical and theoretical research in political economy.
Emese Bálint serves as Senior Coordinator at the CEU Democracy Institute (DI), overseeing the Global Forum project. With a PhD in History from Central European University (2009), she brings extensive experience in research and education to her role.
Erzsébet Báder joined the Democracy Institute (DI) in January 2023 as Program Officer in the Global Forum on Democracy and Development project, in charge of administering the project, convening the international consortium, acting as a liaison between project partners.
Over the past 2 decades, Erzsébet worked with several key actors and stakeholders of the Roma movement in the countries of the Decade of Roma Inclusion initiative, mostly advocating in education related matters. Erzsébet holds a BA degree in English majors from the Kodolanyi Janos University.
Judit Szakács
Outreach Coordinator
