From Democracy to Personalist Electoral Autocracy

The Case of Hungary

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6445461
AutoresGabriella Ilonszki (0000-0002-6394-4047, Corvinus University of Budapest), György Lengyel (0000-0002-4372-0548, Corvinus University of Budapest)
Año2025
Volumen53
Número4
Fecha de publicación2025-07-18
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPolitics & Policy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1555-5623 • E-ISSN: 1747-1346
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/polp.70057
OpenAlexW4413057878
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias 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