Hana Martinkova

While trickle-down economics has been thoroughly discredited, the trickle-down of ideas deserves closer scrutiny. Hana Martínková will explore how political thinking—from academics, intellectuals, and activists—finds its way into policymaking in European liberal democracies. Drawing on both her political experience and interview-based research, she will examine the often-missing link between theory and practice: how, when, and through whom do ideas shape political leaders’ worldviews? Are shifts in thinking mostly reactive—prompted by opinion polling, corporate pressures, or crises—or do advisors, think tanks, media, and education play a deeper, more sustained role? Focusing on Western and Central Europe over the past decade, the project aims to map the channels through which ideas move, using frameworks like policy transfer theory and framing theory. De-Americanizing and reformulating European liberalism is a process that requires sustained effort, and this research seeks to identify where that effort should be directed in order to achieve the greatest intellectual and political impact.