Publishing Institution: National Endowment for Democracy / Political Geography: Hungary

Author:: Marc F. Plattner
Publication Date:: 01-2019
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Democracy
Institution:: National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:: With the longstanding dominance of center-left and center-right parties ebbing across Europe and Latin America, there is a growing danger that substantial segments of the right will be captured by tendencies indifferent or even hostile to liberal democracy. The 2019 elections to the European Parliament will provide a key test. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has transformed the debate by openly promoting the concept of “illiberal democracy.” Orbán seeks to equate liberal democracy as such with a set of policy positions supported by forces on the left, thereby prying conservatives away from their fundamental commitment to liberal democracy. This rising challenge has manifested itself in a struggle for control of the European Union’s center-right bloc, the European People’s Party, as well as in the recent writings of several political theorists identified with the conservative side of the political spectrum.
Topic:: Authoritarianism, Democracy, Liberal Order, Conservatism, and Illiberal Democracy
Political Geography:: Europe, Hungary, Latin America, and Central Europe

Author:: Peter Kreko and Zsolt Enyedi
Publication Date:: 07-2018
Content Type:: Journal Article
Journal:: Journal of Democracy
Institution:: National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:: The reelection of Fidesz leader Viktor Orbán’s government in Hungary in April 2018 has entrenched a hybrid regime within the European Union. This article discusses some of the most crucial factors that have led to Hungary’s democratic backsliding and supplied the institutional and cultural bases of Fidesz’s rule. The authors particularly focus on phenomena that contributed to the party’s third landslide electoral victory, including the rhetoric of identity politics, conspiracy theories, and the fake news industry. While an idiosyncratic sequence of particular events led to the ascendance of illiberal rule in Hungary, the causal factors involved are virtually omnipresent and could therefore lead to similar outcomes elsewhere.
Topic:: Authoritarianism, Elections, Democracy, and Illiberal Democracy
Political Geography:: Europe, Eastern Europe, Hungary, and Central Europe

Author:: Mertek Media Monitor
Publication Date:: 10-2015
Content Type:: Working Paper
Institution:: National Endowment for Democracy
Abstract:: CIMA and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) have been cooperating in a campaign to raise awareness around the world of the insidious practice known as “soft” (or indirect) censorship of news media. Soft censorship is used to promote positive coverage of officials or their actions–and to punish media outlets that criticize them. It is the practice of influencing news coverage of state bodies and officials and their policies and activities through allocation or withholding of state media spending (subsidies, advertising, and other media contracts), or selective application of licensing, permits, or regulations, to shape the broad media landscape; promote or diminish the economic viability of specific media houses or outlets; and reward or punish individual media workers.
Topic:: Media, Journalism, Censorship, and Freedom of Press
Political Geography:: Europe, Hungary, and Central Europe

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