Book proposal summary: Our book challenges the common perception of authoritarian regimes as incompatible with federalism/federal practices and decentralization. We focus on several cases, namely post-Soviet countries, where federal institutions and various forms of decentralization have become integral parts of non-democratic political regimes. We describe how these regimes have managed to exploit federalism and decentralization as useful instruments to help them to preserve control, avoid political instability and shift blame to the regional authorities in times of crises and policy failures. Most recently the post-Soviet authoritarian regimes have exploited federal arrangements and policy decentralization to avoid public disapproval and accountability during the coronavirus crisis.

Professor Delcour presented results of her research on the topic 'The EU and its “eastern neighbourhood”: multiple external influences, policy transfer and domestic change'.