European populism and the return of 'illiberal sovereignty

A case-study of Hungary

Bibliographic Data

ID4031742
AuthorsRoland Paris (corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume98
Issue2
Pages529-547
Publication date2022-03-07
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-5850 • E-ISSN: 1468-2346
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ia/iiac004
OpenAlexW4213171826
LanguageEN
Citations received9

European populist leaders and movements often extol the virtues of sovereignty, but how exactly are they using this term? Scholars have typically relied on conventional understandings of the concept-Westphalian, popular and national sovereignty-to interpret populist discourses, but some have noted that these categories seem inadequate. This article asks whether much older, long overlooked, versions of sovereignty might help to explain the sovereignty discourse of European populists. These older variants include extralegal sovereignty (a leader's power to act outside the constraints of formal rules) and organic sovereignty (the power of a political community understood as a single 'organism'). Both are inherently illiberal: extralegalism rejects constitutionalism, while organicism is inimical to political pluralism. An examination of the public speeches and statements of one prominent European populist leader, Prime Minister Victor Orbán of Hungary, reveals that he has, indeed, invoked these illiberal versions of sovereignty. By retrieving these older concepts, populists gain a powerful rhetorical tool to advance illiberal principles of political authority

Constitutionalism · Democracy · Epistemology · Law and economics · Pluralism (philosophy) · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Popular sovereignty · Populism · Power (physics) · Sociology · Sovereignty · Westphalian sovereignty · Law · Philosophy · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Security, Politics, and Digital Transformation