From Democracy to Personalist Electoral Autocracy

The Case of Hungary

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6445461
AutoresGabriella Ilonszki (0000-0002-6394-4047, Corvinus University of Budapest), György Lengyel (0000-0002-4372-0548, Corvinus University of Budapest)
Ano2025
Volume53
Fascículo4
Data de publicação2025-07-18
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPolitics & Policy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1555-5623 • E-ISSN: 1747-1346
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/polp.70057
OpenAlexW4413057878
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas53

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

Accountability · Authoritarianism · Autocracy · Charisma · Corporate governance · Democracy · Economic system · Economics · Elite · Ideology · Legitimacy · Management · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Populism, Right-Wing Movements