Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:42:56.350Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hungary’s Over-powerful Government Party and the Desperate Opposition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2020

Pál Susánszky
Affiliation:
Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Political Science, Hungary. Email: [email protected]
Anna Unger
Affiliation:
Department of Human Rights and Politics, Faculty of Social Sciences, ELTE, Budapest, Hungary
Ákos Kopper
Affiliation:
Department of International Relations and European Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, ELTE, Budapest, Hungary

Abstract

This paper focuses on Hungary’s illiberal regimes from the perspective of the opposition – a perspective we believe has been under-scrutinized so far. It argues that in order to understand the regime’s success it is crucial to explain why opposition parties have been unable to offer a credible alternative. The paper argues that the opposition is in a trap with three unfavourable factors mutually strengthening each other and undermining its ability for success. They are (1) the cartel party system; (2) the weak social embeddedness of opposition parties; and (3) lack of their presence in local politics. At the same time, we also point out that the rise of a tiny joke-party’s success (The Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party) highlights that these obstacles can be overcome even with very limited resources. Nevertheless, it is still unclear if the Dog Party’s innovative approach to doing politics could be ‘institutionalized’ – i.e. if it offers a feasible model strategy for opposition parties – or it is only an efficient way of mocking and criticizing how the political system operates.

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Batory, A (2016) Populists in government? Hungary’s ‘system of national cooperation’. Democratization 23(2), 283303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Billig, M (2005) Laughter and Ridicule: Towards a Social Critique of Humour. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Bogaards, M (2009) How to classify hybrid regimes? Defective democracy and electoral authoritarianism. Democratization 16(2), 399423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogaards, M (2018) De-democratization in Hungary: diffusely defective democracy. Democratization 25(8), 119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bozóki, A and Hegedűs, D (2017) A kívülről korlátozott hibrid rendszer. Az Orbán-rezsim a rendszertipológia tükrében [An externally constrained hybrid regime: Hungary in the European Union]. Politikatudományi Szemle 26(2), 732.Google Scholar
Buzogány, A (2017) Illiberal democracy in Hungary: authoritarian diffusion or domestic causation? Democratization 24(7), 13071325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cyr, J (2016) Between adaptation and breakdown: conceptualizing party survival. Comparative Politics 49(1), 125145.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Giorgi, E and Ilonszki, G (eds) (2018) Opposition Parties in European Legislatures: Conflict Or Consensus? London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Commission for Democracy through Law – OSCE/ODIHR: Joint Opinion on the Act on the Election of the Members of Parliament of Hungary (2012) (Mentioned as Venice Commission Opinion) https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/default.aspx?pdffile=CDL-AD(2012)012-e (accessed 20 February 2019)Google Scholar
Gherghina, S (2016) Rewarding the ‘traitors’? Legislative defection and re-election in Romania. Party Politics 22(4), 490500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gherghina, S (2014) Party Organization and Electoral Volatility in Central and Eastern Europe: Enhancing Voter Loyalty. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstone, JA (ed.) (2003) States, Parties, and Social Movements. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutter, S, Kriesi, H and Lorenzini, J (2018) Social Movements in Interaction with Political Parties. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jasiewicz, K (2007) Poland: party system by default. In Webb, P and White, S (eds), Party Politics in New Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 85117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, RS and Mair, P (1995) Changing models of party organization and party democracy: the emergence of the cartel party. Party Politics 1(1), 531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, RS and Mair, P (2009) The cartel party thesis: a restatement. Perspectives on Politics 7(4), 753766.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopecký, P (2006) Political parties and the state in post-communist Europe: the nature of symbiosis. Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 22(3), 251273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kopper, A, Susánszky, P, Tóth, G and Gerő, M (2017) Creating suspicion and vigilance. Using enemy images to hinder mobilization. Intersections – East European Journal of Society and Politics 3(3), 108125.Google Scholar
Kornai, J (2016) Még egyszer a ‘rendszerparadigmáról’. Tisztázás és kiegészítések a posztszocialista régió tapasztalatainak fényében [Once more about ‘system paradigms’ Clarifications and additions in the light of the post-socialist region’s expereinces]. Közgazdasági Szemle 63(10). 10741119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kövér, A (2015) August. Captured by state and church: concerns about civil society in democratic Hungary. Nonprofit Policy Forum 6(2), 187212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitsky, S and Way, LA (2010) Competitive Authoritarianism. Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Majtényi, B, Kopper, Á and Susánszky, P (2019) Constitutional othering, ambiguity and subjective risks of mobilization in Hungary: examples from the migration crisis. Democratization 26(2), 173189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obert, P and Mueller, J (2017) Representation and new party survival in multi-level systems. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 27(4), 413432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission (2014) Hungary – Parliamentary Elections 6 April 2014, Final Report. (Mentioned as OSCE Report 2014) https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections/hungary/121098?download=true (accessed 20 February 2019).Google Scholar
Papp, Z and Zorigt, B (2018) Political constraints and the limited effect of electoral system change on personal vote-seeking in Hungary. East European Politics and Societies 32(1), 119141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poguntke, T (2002) Party Organizational Linkage: Parties without Firm Social Roots? Keele: Keele University.Google Scholar
Polyák, G (2019) Media in Hungary: three pillars of an illiberal democracy. In Polonska, E and Ch, Beckett (eds), Public Service Broadcasting and Media Systems in Troubled European Democracies. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 279303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schedler, A (2013) The Politics of Uncertainty. Sustaining and Subverting Electoral Authoritarianism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitter, PC and Karl, TL (1991) What is democracy… and is not. Journal of Democracy 2(3), 7588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, MA (2010) Interactions between social movements and US political parties. Party Politics 16(5), 587607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Susánszky, P, Kopper, A and Tóth, G (2016) Pro-government demonstrations in Hungary-citizens’ autonomy and the role of the media. East European Politics 32(1), 6380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tavits, M (2012) Organizing for success: party organizational strength and electoral performance in postcommunist Europe. The Journal of Politics 74(1), 8397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tóka, G (2014) Constitutional principles and electoral democracy in Hungary. In Bos, E and Pócza, K (eds), Verfassunggebung in konsolidierten Demokratien. Neubeginn oder Verfall eines politischen Systems? Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp. 311329.Google Scholar
Unger, A (2018) A választás mint rendszerkarakterisztikus intézmény. Fundamentum 22(2-3), 516.Google Scholar
Uslaner, EM (2006) Political parties and social capital, political parties. In Katz, RS and Crotty, WJ (eds), Handbook of Party Politics. London: SAGE, pp. 376386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Várnagy, R and Ilonszki, G (2017) The conflict of partisan interests and normative expectations in electoral system change. Hungary in 2014. Corvinus Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 8(1), 324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Biezen, I and Kopecky, P (2017) The paradox of party funding: the limited impact of state subsidies on party membership. In Scarrow, SE, Webb, PDPoguntke, T (eds), Organizing Political Parties: Participation, Representation and Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 84105.Google Scholar
Webb, PD and Keith, D (2017) Assessing the strength of party organizational resources: a survey of the evidence from the political party database. In Scarrow, SE, Webb, PD and Poguntke, T (eds), Organizing Political Parties: Representation, Participation, and Power. Oxford: Oxford University.Google Scholar