This book is the product of three years of empirical research, four years in politics, and a lifetime in a country experiencing three different regimes. Transcending disciplinary boundaries, it provides a fresh answer to a simple yet profound question: why has liberal democracy retreated?
Scheiring argues that Hungary’s new hybrid authoritarian regime emerged as a political response to the tensions of globalisation. He demonstrates how Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz exploited the rising nationalism among the working-class casualties of deindustrialisation and the national bourgeoisie to consolidate illiberal hegemony.
As the world faces a new wave of autocratisation, Hungary’s lessons become relevant across the globe, and this book represents a significant contribution to understanding challenges to democracy. This work will be useful to students and researchers across political sociology, political science, economy and social anthropology, as well democracy advocates.
Keywords
neo-nationalism socio-economics elites Hungarian politics Viktor Orbán
Author(s): Gábor Scheiring
Series: Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century
Edition: 1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
City: Cham, Switzerland
Preface
References
Acknowledgements
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
1: Introduction
The Retreat of Liberal Democracy
Democratic Backsliding in Hungary
Alternative Explanations of Democratic Backsliding
Political Rogues
Anti-liberal Cultural Legacies
The Failure of Liberalism to Deliver
Dependent Capitalism
Debates on the Nature of the New Regime in Hungary
State Capture
Developmental State
The Aims of This Book
References
2: The Political Economy of Illiberalism
Globalisation and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century
Class and Power Structure Analysis
The Power Structure of the Competition State
International Integration, Domestic Disintegration
Workers and Neo-nationalism
National Bourgeoisie and Economic Nationalism
The Power Structure of the Accumulative State
Research Methodology
References
3: The Competition State
Revolving Doors in Action
1969–1990
1990–1994
1994–1998
1998–2002
2002–2010
Policy Preferences of Transnational Capitalists
References
4: International Integration, Domestic Disintegration
The Dominance of Transnational Capital
The Marginalisation of National Capital
The Marginalisation of the Working Class
Vestigial Welfare State
Disillusionment with Dependent Capitalism
The Collapse of the Hungarian Socialist Party
References
5: Workers and Neo-nationalism
Fieldwork Context
Moral Memories of Socialism
The Experience of Class Dislocation
The Rise of Neo-nationalist Narratives
References
6: National Bourgeoisie and Economic Nationalism
Market Transition and the Business Class
The Factions of the National Bourgeoisie
Political Capitalists
Committed Conservatives
Emerging Capitalists
Co-opted Capitalists
References
7: The Accumulative State
The Instruments of the Accumulative State
Conflicts Within the Power Bloc
Social Disintegration
Economic Disintegration
Institutional Authoritarianism and Authoritarian Populism
References
8: Conclusions
The Causal Narrative
The Competition State and Simulated Liberal Democracy
Dependent Development: International Integration, Domestic Disintegration
The Countermovement of the Working Class
The Countermovement of the National Bourgeoisie
The Accumulative State
Varieties of Authoritarian State Capitalism
Insights for the Theory of Illiberalism
References
Index
