Authors

Discussion

Since 2010, the Hungarian case has featured prominently in scientific debates on the hybridization of political regimes, which aim to go beyond the classic dichotomy of democracy and authoritarianism by exploring the grey area of regimes combining elements of both categories. The liberal democracy introduced in 1989-1990 has rapidly been replaced by an institutional framework known as the "System of National Cooperation" (SNC), characterized by a concentration of power in the hands of the executive and by numerous infringements of individual freedoms. The SNC has three distinctive features that make it a rich case study for a discussion on illiberalism at the European level: the dismantling of liberal democracy has been faster and more profound than in any other EU member state; its Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claims to promote a non-liberal conception of democracy; the labels attached to the SNC produce political struggles at European level, where an unprecedented conflict is pitting Viktor Orbán against European institutions that accuse him of jeopardizing the rule of law.

While many contemporary authoritarian regimes formally respect democratic principles in order to retain some international legitimacy, the systematic violation of these principles in Hungary has taken place in an uninterrupted dialogue with the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU). This paper claims that the interplay between the national and European levels of government goes much deeper than the logic of infringement/sanction that has been extensively studied in the existing literature: the break with liberal democracy in Hungary was very precisely calibrated to fit European constraints. Moreover, political qualifications and scholarly categorization of regimes are closely intertwined in the European political arena, and European organizations are directly involved in qualification disputes concerning the SNC.

The paper shows that since 2010, Hungarian leaders have mobilized and subverted the category of democracy to legitimize a political project – breaking with liberalism – that they have framed in the very language of European values. Viktor Orbán has even reappropriated the disputed notion of “illiberal democracy” to escape the even more infamous label of authoritarianism, while the EU and the CoE regularly denounce the systematic violations of democratic principles without having a decisive influence on the Hungarian institutional framework and political practices. On the contrary, the heated EU-level conflict over respect for the rule of law has become a weapon in the cultural war waged by FIDESz against liberalism. This ambivalent relationship with European organizations explains not only the characteristics, but also the longevity of the SNC.