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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2020

Pál Susánszky ,
Anna Unger  and
Ákos Kopper
Pál Susánszky
Affiliation:
Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Political Science, Hungary. Email: pal.susanszky@gmail.com
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
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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
Information
European Review , Volume 28 , Issue 5 , October 2020 , pp. 761 - 777
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2020

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