Democracy in the world today faces new challenges. Some of them, such as populism and a lack of democratic procedure, can be traced back to the collapse of the socialist world before 1989 and the subsequent transition out of communism. From April 26-28, 2021, the international conference “Rethinking the Democratic Future: Lessons from the 20th Century” was held in Vilnius, Lithuania, where these challenges of democracy were considered from the historical perspective of Central and Eastern Europe.

During the conference, Bulgarian and Lithuanian experts from the Transition Dialogue Network spoke about the challenges of transition in formal and non-formal education fields. They addressed different perspectives of transition and reflected upon the difficulties of teaching transition in schools. The benefits of specifically tackling the teaching of history in all education sectors was ultimately focused upon, and as such how the lessons of the 20^th Century can be reimplemented and applied by the 21^st Century generation, who are now growing up with no living memory of the experience of socialism and its aftermath.

A recap of the conference can be viewed here