The Institutionalization of Memory Politics in a Hybrid Political Regime: The Figure, Legacy, and Appropriation of György Lukács in Hungary between 2010 and 2020

Abstract

This article examines the political reception of György Lukács and his students in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary between 2010 and 2020. It argues that Orbán’s autocratic regime has sought to systematically delegitimize Lukács’s person, thought, and legacy in an attempt to consolidate power and usher in a “new cultural era.” The article analyzes three pivotal moments in the Orbán regime’s struggle against Lukács: a 2011 lawsuit accusing Lukács’s intellectual heirs of embezzling research money; a media takedown of Lukács, resulting in the removal of his statue from Budapest in 2017; and the closure of the Lukács Archives in 2018. The article shows that, rather than engage with Lukács’s thought and ideology, the Orbán regime has treated Lukács as an unwanted cultural symbol. It concludes by warning that Orbán’s treatment of Lukács is exemplary of “illiberal democracies” across the world: when ideology is deemed meaningless, culture becomes directly subjugated to political power.