Institute of Sociology NASU

The foundations of hybrid authoritarian state capitalism in Hungary

This article is a revised version of a previous report published by the Transnational Institute (Challenging Authoritarianism Series, no 1, April 2028).

stmm. 2020 (1): 119-131

UDC 316.33

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2020.01.119

Gábor Scheiring - Academic Fellow, Department of Social and Political Sciences & Dondena Centre Bocconi University (Milano, Italy).

ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0775-8610

Abstract. Authoritarian capitalist practices are gaining foothold not only in non-democratic states, such as China, but even in countries with strong liberal institutions. From Greece to the US, an increasing number of countries show its symptoms: curtailing democratic contestation in order to stabilise accumulation. Hungary is one of the most puzzling cases. Hungarian elites followed the good governance blueprints of international institutions, implementing liberal political and economic reforms between 1990 and 2010. For long, the country was considered to be a frontrunner of the third wave of democratisation, yet now it is seen as the prime example of the illiberal turn. Orbán’s political-economic model, hybrid authoritarian capitalism institutionalised by the accumulative state, has been stable for eight years now. To understand the emergence, stability and potential vulnerability of this regime, this article digs deeper into the contradictions of post-socialist liberal policies.

Keywords: authoritarian capitalism, illiberalism, democratic backsliding accumulative state, Hungary.

Publication in: eng

References

Berman, Sh. (2006). The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe's Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Blyth, M.M. (2016). Global Trumpism: Why Trump's Victory Was 30 Years in the Making and Why It Won't Stop Here. Foreign Affairs, 15 November 2016. URL: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2016-11-15...

Boycko, M., Shleifer, A., Vishny, R.W., Fischer, S., Sachs, J.D. (1993). Privatizing Russia. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 2, 139-92. https://doi.org/10.2307/2534566

Bozóki, A., Hegedűs, D. (2018). An Externally Constrained Hybrid Regime: Hungary in the European Union. Democratization, 25(7), 1173-1189. Dániel Hegedűs. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2018.1455664

Bruszt, L. (1998). The Politics of Patience: Support for Capitalism. In: S. Barnes, J. Simon (Eds.), The Postcommunist Citizen (New European Studies) (pp. 165-95). Budapest: Erasmus Foundation and IPS of HAS.

Bunce, V. (2006). Global Patterns and Postcommunist Dynamics. Orbis, 50(4), 601-620. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orbis.2006.07.002

Crouch, C. (2009). Privatised Keynesianism: An Unacknowledged Policy Regime. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 11(3), 382-399. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-856x.2009.00377.x

Drahokoupil, J. (2008). The Investment-Promotion Machines: The Politics of Foreign Direct Investment Promotion in Central and Eastern Europe. Europe-Asia Studies, 60(2), 197-225. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668130701820085

Enyedi, Z., Fábián, Z., Tardos, R. (2014). Parties and Voters, 2002-2014. [In Hungarian]In: T. Kolosi, I.G. Tóth (Eds.), Social Report (pp. 532-56). Budapest: TÁRKI.

Eurostat (2014). Taxation Trends in the European Union. Data for the EU Member States, Iceland and Norway. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Eurostat (2019a). Employment and Activity by Sex and Age - Annual Data. URL: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?da...

Eurostat (2019b). Inability to Face Unexpected Financial Expenses. URL: http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?da...

Evans, P.B. (2014). The Capability Enhancing Developmental State: Concepts and National Trajectories. In: Eun Mee Kim, Pil Ho Kim (Eds.), The South Korean Development Experience (pp. 83-110). Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137278173_6

Fabry, A. (2019). The Political Economy of Hungary: From State Capitalism to Authoritarian Neoliberalism. London: Palgrave Pivot. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10594-5

Freedom House (2015). Nations in Transit 2015: Democracy on the Defensive in Europe and Eurasia. Washington, D.C.: Freedom House.

Fukuyama, F. (1992). The End of History and the Last Man. New York: The Free Press.

Fukuyama, F. (2012a). Do Institutions Really Matter? The American Interest, 23 January.

Fukuyama, F. (2012b). What's Wrong with Hungary? The American Interest, 6 February.

Gagyi, Á. (2016). Coloniality of Power' in East Central Europe: External Penetration as Internal Force in Post-Socialist Hungarian Politics. Journal of world-systems research, 22(2), 349-372. https://doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2016.626

Greskovits, B. (1998). The Political Economy of Protest and Patience: East European and Latin American Transformations Compared. Budapest: Central European University Press. https://doi.org/10.1163/221023900x00605

HCSO (2016). Consolidated Gross Government Debt in Per Cent of the Gdp (1995-2015). [In Hungarian] URL: http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/eurostat_tablak/tabl/ts...

Herman, L.E. (2016). Re-Evaluating the Post-Communist Success Story: Party Elite Loyalty, Citizen Mobilization and the Erosion of Hungarian Democracy. European Political Science Review, 8(02), 251-284. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1755773914000472

Hirschman, A.O. (2013[1977]). A Generalized Linkage Approach to Development, with Special Reference to Staples. In: The Essential Hirschman, edited by Albert O Hirschman and Jeremy Adelman (pp. 155-194). Princeton: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691159904.003.0007

Holló, D. (2007). Household Indebtedness and Financial Stability - Should We Be Afraid? National Bank Quarterly, November, 22-29.

Irdam, D., Scheiring, G., King, L. (2015). Mass Privatization. In: J. Hцlscher, H. Tomann, Palgrave Dictionary of Emerging Markets and Transition Economics (pp. 488-507). Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-37138-6_26

Kalb, D. (2018). Upscaling Illiberalism: Class, Contradiction, and the Rise of the Populist Right in Post-Socialist Central Europe. Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences 11(3), 303-321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-018-0221-3

Kolosi, T., Tóth, I.G. (2008). The Winners and the Losers of the Transition. [In Hungarian] In: T. Kolosi, I.G. Tóth (Eds.), Social Report (pp. 15-45). Budapest: TÁRKI.

Laki, M. (2014). Restructuring and Re-Regulation of the Hungarian Tobacco Market: A Case Study [In Hungarian]. MT-Dp, 2014/10.

Levitz, P., Pop-Eleches, G. (2010). Why No Backsliding? The European Union's Impact on Democracy and Governance before and after Accession. Comparative Political Studies, 43(4), 457-485. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414009355266

OECD (2018). Average Annual Wages. URL: https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=AV_A...

Pew Research Centre (2009). The Pew Global Attitudes Project 2009. Two Decades after the Wall's Fall: End of Communism Cheered but Now with More Reservations. Washington: Pew Global.

Pitti, Z. (2010). Economic Performance Contra Social Expectations. [In Hungarian] Budapest: Napvilág Kiadó.

Pogátsa, Z. (2009). Hungary: From Star Transition Student to Backsliding Member State. Journal of Contemporary European Research, 5(4), 597-613.

Polanyi, K. (2001 [1944]). The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press.

Sachs, J. (1990). What Is to Be Done? The Economist, 13 January, 21-26.

Sargentini, J. (2018). Report on a Proposal Calling on the Council to Determine, Pursuant to Article 7(1) of the Treaty on European Union, the Existence of a Clear Risk of a Serious Breach by Hungary of the Values on Which the Union Is Founded A8-0250/2018. In: Strasbourg: Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, 12 September.

Scheiring, G. (2016a). The Rise of Illiberalism from East to the West: A Lesson About Class for the Left. URL: http://politicalcritique.org/cee/hungary/2016/the-rise-of-illiberalism-from-east-to-the-west-a-lesson-about-class-for-the-left/: politicalcritique.org

Scheiring, G. (2016b). Sustaining Democracy in an Era of Dependent Financialization: Karl Polanyi's Perspectives on the Politics of Finance. Intersections: East European Journal of Society and Politics, 2(2), 84. https://doi.org/10.17356/ieejsp.v2i2.183

Scheiring, G. (2018). Lessons from the Political Economy of Authoritarian Capitalism in Hungary. Amsterdam: Transnational Institute, Challenging Authoritarianism Series, 1, April.

Scheiring, G. (2019a). Dependent Development and Authoritarian State Capitalism: Democratic Backsliding and the Rise of the Accumulative State in Hungary. Geoforum Published online, 5 September.

Scheiring, G. (2019b). Hungarian Opposition Takes a Crucial Step, but Still a Long Way to Go for the Left. URL: https://fpc.org.uk/hungarian-opposition-takes-a-cr... The Foreign Policy Centre, 14 October.

Szombati, K. (2018). The Revolt of the Provinces: Anti-Gypsyism and Right-Wing Politics in Hungary. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvw04cbm

Tavares, R. (2013). Report on the Situation of Fundamental Rights: Standards and Practices in Hungary (A7-0229/2013). Strasbourg: Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, European Parliament.

The Guardian (2018). How Hungarian Pm's Supporters Profit from EU-Backed Projects. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/12/how-...

Wade, R.H. (2006). How Can Middle-Income Countries Escape 'Gravity' and Catch upwith High-Income Countries? The Case for Open Economy Industrial Policy. Halduskultuur, 9, 12-29. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199698561.003.0008

World Bank (2019). World Development Indicators. URL: http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-devel...