doc. Dr. habil. MA PhDr. Petra Guasti, Ph.D.

Petra Guasti’s research focuses on the reconfiguration of democracy amid contemporary crises. She examines how democratic institutions, norms, and forms of representation transform under the pressures of populism, polarisation, and illiberal tendencies, and how these processes reshape the quality and stability of democratic governance. She approaches Central and Eastern Europe as a laboratory of these dynamics — a region where patterns of democratic erosion, institutional adaptation, and renewal concentrate in ways that make broader global trends more analytically visible.

At the same time, she studies democratic innovations as instruments of redemocratisation. She designs and, together with her team, tests new deliberative formats — particularly with an emphasis on depolarisation, linking experts, civil society, and decision-making actors, and fostering youth participation in politics. Her work connects democratic theory, institutional design, and comparative empirical analysis, contributing to international debates on the future of liberal democracy.

Monographs

• Zulianello M., & Guasti P. (2024). Capire il Populismo. UTET Universita.
• Gagnon J., Abrams B., Asenbaum H., & Guasti P. (2025). The Sciences of the Democracies. UCL Press.

Chapters in monographs

• Guasti P., & Mansfeldová Z. (2021). Tschechien: Herausforderungen durch Polarisierung und Machtfusion. Demokratie im postkommunistischen EU-Raum: Erfolge, Defizite, Risiken (pp. 175-191).
• Guasti P., & Mansfeldova Z. (2023). Regularity and Instability: Coalition Governments in Czechia 2008-2022. Coalition Politics in Central Eastern Europe: Governing in Times of Crisis (pp. 68-93).
• Guasti P., Malý M., & Michal A. (2024). Crisi e populismo: il caso della Slovacchia. Capire il populismo (pp. 135-137).
• Guasti P. (2024). Populismo e tecnocrazia: opposti complementari. Capire il Populismo (pp. 53-57).
• Guasti P., Michal A., & Malý M. (2024). Risposte socialdemocratiche al populismo: un’analisi comparata. Capire il populismo (pp. 152-155).
• Guasti P., & Perottino M. (2024). Zeitgeist antiestablishment à la française. Capire il Populismo (pp. 132-134).
• Guasti P. (2026). Democratization. IPSA Companion to Political Science: A Practical Introduction to the 200 Most Important Concepts (pp. 1-4).
• Guasti P., & Geissel B. (2026). Political representation of denizens. Citizenship and Democratic Innovations in Europe (pp. 97-116).
• Bustikova L., & Guasti P. (2024). Migration and right-wing mobilization in the Czech Republic. Migration and Nationalism: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives (pp. 197-222).

Articles

• Guasti P., & Geissel B. (2021). Claims of Representation: Between Representation and Democratic Innovations. Frontiers in Political Science [online], neuveden(neuveden), 1-12.
• Guasti P. (2021). Mosaic of the contemporary populist radical right: A review essay. European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology [online], 8(3), 355-362.
• Guasti P. (2021). Democratic Erosion and Democratic Resilience in Central Europe during COVID-19. Mezinárodní vztahy, 56(4), 91-104. UT-WOS link
• Guasti P., & Bílek J. (2022). The demand side of vaccine politics and pandemic illiberalism. East European Politics, 38(4), 594-616. UT-WOS link
• Guasti P., & Bustikova L. (2022). Pandemic power grab. East European Politics, 38(4), 529-550. UT-WOS link
• Guasti P., & Bustikova L. (2023). Varieties of Illiberal Backlash in Central Europe. Problems of Post-Communism, 70(2), 130-142. UT-WOS link
• Guasti P., & Zulianello M. (2025). POPULISMO, OPINIONE PUBBLICA E MEDIA DIGITALI. Il Mulino, neuveden(4), 27-36.
• Perottino M., & Guasti P. (2020). Technocratic Populism a la Française? The Roots and Mechanisms of Emmanuel Macron's Success. Politics and Governance [online], 8(4), 545-555. UT-WOS link
• Siefken S., Guasti P., Patzelt W., Akirav O., Coghill K., & Haupt P. (2021). Parlamente in der Pandemie: Erste Erkenntnisse aus einem international vergleichenden Forschungsvorhaben. Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen, 52(4), 878-895.
• Enyedi Z., Guasti P., Schafer D., & Mikola B. (2025). Illiberal Politics in Europe: Ideology, Policies, and Impact. Politics and Governance, 13(2025), 1-10. UT-WOS link
• Bustikova L., & Guasti P. (2025). Kill the Bill: Ordo Iuris and the Ratification of the Istanbul Convention in the Czech Senate. Journal of Illiberalism Studies, 5(3), 113-129.
• Gagnon J., Asenbaum H., Fleuss D., Bussu S., Guasti P., Dean R., Chalaye P., Alnemr N., Marquardt F., & Weiss A. (2021). The Marginalized Democracies of the World. Democratic Theory, 8(2), 1-18. UT-WOS link
• Karolewski P., Libin X., Patapan H., Halmai G., Kutay A., Guasti P., & Scheuerman W. (2023). Carl Schmitt and Democratic Backsliding. Contemporary Political Theory, 22(3), 406-437. UT-WOS link

Contributions in the conference proceedings

Current and Recently Completed Projects

Intersectional Spaces of Participation: Inclusive, Resilient, Embedded (INSPIRE)
Horizon Europe (April 2024-2027)
Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI); leads the Prague team and a work package focused on co-producing democratic innovation with public officials and citizens.

Neo-Authoritarianisms in Europe and the Liberal Democratic Response (AUTHLIB)
Horizon Europe (2022 – January 2026)
Co-Principal Investigator; led the Charles University team and a work package on mini-publics as democratic interventions.

National Institute for Research on the Socio-Economic Impact of Systemic Risks (SYRI)
EXCELES Programme (2022–2025)
Co-Principal Investigator and Deputy Scientific Director; led a research team focusing on populism, polarization, and democratic resilience.