Brave New Hungary

János Matyas Kovács; Balazs Trencsenyi

doi:10.5771/9781498543675

Summary

Brave New Hungaryfocuses on the rise of a “brave new” anti-liberal regime led by Viktor Orbán who made a decisive contribution to the transformation of a poorly managed liberal democracy to a well-organized authoritarian rule bordering on autocracy during the past decade. Emerging capitalism in post-1989 Hungary that once took pride in winning the Eastern European race for catching up with the West has evolved into a reclusive, statist, national-populist system reminding the observers of its communist and pre-communist predecessors. Going beyond the self-description of the Orbán regime that emphasizes its Christian-conservative and illiberal nature, the authors, leading experts of Hungarian politics, history, society, and economy, suggest new ways to comprehend the sharp decline of the rule of law in an EU member state. Their case studies cover crucial fields of the new authoritarian power, ranging from its historical roots and constitutional properties to media and social policies. The volume presents the Hungarian “System of National Cooperation” as a pervasive but in many respects improvised and vulnerable experiment in social engineering, rather than a set of mature and irreversible institutions. The originality of this dystopian “new world” does not stem from the transition to authoritarian control per se but its plurality of meanings. It can be seen as a simulacrum that shows different images to different viewers and perpetuates itself by its post-truth variability. Rather than pathologizing the current Hungarian regime as a result of a unique master plan designed by a cynical political entrepreneur, the authors show the transnational dynamic of backsliding – a warning for other countries that suffer from comparable deadlocks of liberal democracy.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2019
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4985-4366-8
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4985-4367-5
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 450
Product type: Edited Book

1. Contents No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 6
1. 1. Prelude: Constitutions and Constitution-making in Illiberal Regimes No access
  2. Placing the Fundamental Law in the System of National Cooperation: The Context of Its Creation and Its Consequences No access
  3. The Declaration of National Cooperation as a Readers’ Guide: Reclaiming Hungary for the Hungarians No access
  4. The Revolutionary Mandate and Its Many Uses No access
  5. Concluding Remarks: Why Bother about Understanding the Fundamental Law Better? No access
  6. Notes No access
  7. Bibliography No access
2. 1. Institutional Innovations No access
  2. National Self-historicization No access
  3. Wider European Shifts No access
  4. Dual Agenda No access
  5. Conclusion No access
  6. Notes No access
  7. Bibliography No access
3. 1. Disciplining Civil Society No access
  2. Civic Organizations as “Foreign Agents” No access
  3. The Growth of “Uncivil Society” No access
  4. Conclusion No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
4. 1. A Painful Rediscovery? Fidesz and Hungarian Minorities after 1989 No access
  2. The Ideology of National Unification No access
  3. Structures of “National Cooperation” No access
  4. Conclusion No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
5. 1. Freedom of Religion before and after 1989 No access
  2. Constitutional Changes No access
  3. Statutory Limitations and Case Law No access
  4. Models of State-Religion Relations and Liberal Democracy No access
  5. Conclusion No access
  6. Notes No access
  7. Bibliography No access
6. 1. Celebrating Unorthodoxy No access
  2. On the Legacy of Moderate Reformism No access
  3. Mediating between Two Matolcsys No access
  4. Notes No access
  5. Bibliography No access
1. 1. How to Create One Million Jobs? No access
  2. Reforms at Work – First Five Years No access
  3. Changes after 2015 No access
  4. Half a Million Jobs So Far and More to Come? No access
  5. Life outside the Work-based Society No access
  6. Notes No access
  7. Bibliography No access
2. 1. Historical-Structural Analysis: Regional Challenges and Dependencies Related to Migration and Demographic Change No access
  2. Population Policies and Institutionalized Demographic Nationalism No access
  3. Migration Policies and Institutionalized Demographic Nationalism No access
  4. Political Control and Discursive Fights over Hierarchies No access
  5. Conclusion No access
  6. Notes No access
  7. Bibliography No access
3. 1. The Broader Picture No access
  2. Ownership Changes No access
  3. Three Examples from the Energy Sector No access
  4. Soft Deals and Sweetheart Deals No access
  5. Limitations of Free Competition No access
  6. Conclusion No access
  7. Notes No access
  8. Bibliography No access
4. 1. Orbán’s Road No access
  2. Building Blocks of a Propaganda State No access
  3. Conclusion: Triumphant Populism – From Fake News to Fake Media No access
  4. Notes No access
  5. BIBLIOGRAPHY No access
5. 1. The Role of Ideologies in Public Policy-making under the SNC No access
  2. 2011 Pension Reform No access
  3. Family Policies No access
  4. Conclusion No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
6. 1. The Organizational and Legal Background No access
  2. The Tensions Preceding the Legal Initiative No access
  3. The Higher Education Bill and First Reactions No access
  4. Support and International Context No access
  5. Institutional Alternatives No access
  6. Anti-CEU Arguments and Discourse No access
  7. Conclusion No access
  8. Notes No access
  9. Bibliography No access
1. 1. The Criminal Character of the Regime No access
  2. Criminal Organizations Expropriating Property No access
  3. Classifying Criminal Organization Actions No access
  4. Conclusion No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
2. 1. Notes No access
  2. Bibliography No access
3. 1. The Orbán regime in power since spring 2010 has a well-defined essential sociological-political nature (1)(a) No access
  2. The Orbán regime is, within the European Union, sui generis (1) (c) No access
  3. The Orbán regime is essentially post-communist (1) (d) No access
  4. The regime has no ideological or policy-related goals concerning the whole of Hungarian society beyond their one objective to retain power and to milk it for economic gain (2) No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
4. 1. Is the Union Authorized to Protect Democracy in Member States? No access
  2. Does the EU Have the Capacity to Protect Liberal Democracy in Member States? No access
  3. What Can Be Done? No access
  4. The (All-Important) Question of Criteria No access
  5. Some Further Concerns No access
  6. Notes No access
  7. Bibliography No access
5. 1. Background to the 2015 Parliamentary Election No access
  2. Free and Fair Elections with Unfair Consequences No access
  3. The New Government: Unexpected Post-Electoral Developments No access
  4. The New Order: What For? No access
  5. Conclusion No access
  6. Notes No access
  7. Bibliography No access
6. 1. Competitive Bargaining Processes and Patronage Practices No access
  2. The President and the Parties: Shifting Nature of the Political Regime No access
  3. Shifting Political Cleavages and Patronage No access
  4. Conclusion No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
7. 1. Bending Conservatism No access
  2. Under the Spell of a One-Man Show No access
  3. The SNC: A Systematic Move toward the System? No access
  4. Global Dynamics and Local Peculiarities No access
  5. Historicizing the System of National Cooperation: The Long March Away from the Liberal Consensus No access
  6. Instituting the System No access
  7. The System of National Cooperation as a Simulacrum No access
  8. Shaky Forecasts: Consolidation, Implosion, or . . . ? No access
  9. Notes No access
  10. Bibliography No access
Index No access Pages 433 - 444
About the Editors and Contributors No access Pages 445 - 450