Tõnis Saarts is an Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at Tallinn University (Estonia). His research interests include democracy and democratization in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), party politics, social cleavages, and the rise of populism. He has published in journals as East European Politics, Problems of Post-Communism, European Societies, Regional & Federal Studies, European Politics and Society, etc. He has also written the chapters for the handbooks published by Routledge and Palgrave.