Andras Bozoki's Co-Authored Chapter in the volume: Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989
Andras Bozoki's co-authored book chapter "Two Faces of Hungary" appeared in the volume: Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989 published by Cambridge University Press.
"This chapter looks at the last thirty years of political developments in Hungary as it explains how the democracy that was built after 1989 and was considered consolidated by many scholars has substantially eroded in the last ten years. We argue that the non-participatory or elitist nature of regime change and the new Hungarian democracy, the development of partitocracy, that is exercise of democracy exclusively through political parties, and the political elite’s never-ending demand for sacrifices from the population as an answer to economic problems led to public disillusionment with democracy. As a result, in 2010 voters gave Viktor Orbán and his government unchecked power to do as he wished. He used the power invested in him to consolidate the political, economic, and cultural dominance of his circle to the detriment of democratic values and institutions. We conclude by describing the characteristics of the externally constrained hybrid regime that has developed since 2010."