Eastern Europe a Decade Later: Slovakia’s Democratic Awakening

Martin Bútora is honorary president of the Institute for Public Affairs, an independent think tank in Bratislava, Slovakia, that he founded in 1997. In 1989, he was cofounder of Public Against Violence, the leading Slovak force in the Velvet Revolution. He advised Czechoslovak president Václav Havel on human rights issues from 1990 to 1992, and was Slovakia’s ambassador to the United States from 1999 to 2003.

Zora Bútorová is a resident scholar at the Institute of Public Affairs. Since 1990, she has conducted public opinion research and has written extensively on the political culture and value orientations of Slovakia’s population.