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Hungary

August 9, 2023

The EU is withholding all structural funds from Hungary – but Orbán doesn’t want to talk about it

Kinga Korányi Viktor Orbán’s annual ‘keynote’ speeches at Băile Tușnad are always controversial. Kinga Korányi argues that this year’s speech, in contrast with all those going back to 2010, should outrage observers less for what he said than for what he omitted: the EU’s withholding of all structural funding to Hungary Read more

July 4, 2023

🔮 How populist parties survive ‘mainstreaming’ once in power

Anca Turcu Populists thrive on being perceived as outsiders. This creates an incentive for mainstream governing populist parties to portray themselves as challengers to the establishment. Anca Turcu examines the tactics Hungary’s and Turkey’s governing populists employ to survive mainstreaming Read more

May 22, 2023

⛓️ Why we must resist illiberalism’s attacks on higher education

Andrea Pető Andrea Pető is a gender scholar formerly based at Central European University in Budapest. Following crackdowns on gender studies by Viktor Orbán's government in Hungary, her institution has been forced into exile in Vienna. Here, Andrea breaks down illiberal leaders' specific strategies to undermine academic freedom, and offers suggestions for how academics, and citizens, can resist illiberal attacks on higher education Read more

March 10, 2023

Pandemic Europe three years on: insights from political science

Veronica Anghel It is three years since the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic, on 11 March 2020. Veronica Anghel conducts a retrospective analysis of the impact of the health crisis, from all social scientific perspectives. Did political science rise to the challenge? Read more

September 27, 2022

♟️ Autocratic legalism: the ‘silent’ authoritarianism

Akudo McGee All regimes have courts but through so-called ‘autocratic legalism’, autocrats leverage them to consolidate regimes without initially raising red flags. Akudo McGee argues that autocratic legalism easily flies under the radar because early warning signs of autocratisation are subtle. Indicators of autocratisation, therefore, need better taxonomies of authoritarianism to work Read more

August 5, 2022

🌊 Orbán’s racist rhetoric: a desperate domestic power grab

Kinga Korányi Viktor Orbán’s condemned speech at Băile Tușnad marks a dangerous turn towards fascist rhetoric. But it also reveals a larger narrative overlooked by international observers. Orbán’s party could be undergoing programmatic realignment to attract support from far-right voters in a time when his party faces great insecurity, writes Kinga Koranyi Read more

July 11, 2022

♟️ Autocracy in democracy’s mirror

Matthijs Bogaards Can we see autocracy more clearly if we see it as the opposite of democracy? Or do we need to look at autocracy as a category in its own right? Matthijs Bogaards provides an answer through a critical examination of the concept of defective autocracy, the mirror of defective democracy. Read more

April 4, 2022

🌊 Orbán is returned to power in Hungary

Kinga Korányi Viktor Orbán has just emerged victorious in the Hungarian national election of 3 April, despite his pro-Russian stance and friendship with Vladimir Putin, which had been expected to tarnish his party Fidesz’s popularity. Kinga Koranyi argues that Fidesz managed to turn its response to the war in Ukraine into a successful campaign tool Read more

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