From Democracy to Personalist Electoral Autocracy: The Case of Hungary

Abstract

This article investigates how governance patterns have developed in Hungary after 2010, when its democratic backsliding began. In the authoritarian personalist regime, the leader of Fidesz, Viktor Orbán, has a dominant role. The study reveals how informal governance solutions predominate to the detriment of formal institutions. The major building blocks of the regime are a loyal new elite, economic clientele, controlled media, and affective polarization. Representative linkages, responsibility, and accountability foundations are missing, and decision making is not transparent; governance failure can be observed. The regime regards performance as a source of justification, while ideology and the charismatic qualities of the leader appear to be the main actual sources of legitimacy.