Abstract This paper analyses individual-level populism in Croatia. Starting from the ideational definition of populism, the study tests to what extent the economic grievances, sociocultural and ideational explanations, respectively, reflect the average populism subscriber in Croatia. The analysis was made using hierarchical linear regression based on field survey data from 2020 (n=979). Results show how populism is mostly associated with authoritarianism, conspiratorial thinking and institutional (dis)trust. The economic grievances explanation has only marginal relevance, revealing that sociotropic perception is more important than the socioeconomic position of the individual. Furthermore, the study emphasises the importance of operationalising populism in accordance with the assumed structure of the concept. In the same vein, it is noted that populism on an attitudinal level should be separated from the concepts of thick ideologies. If this is not done with caution, the conclusions drawn are questionable, and the analytical contribution of populism is imprecisely determined.
{"title":"Populist attitudes in Croatia: first analysis with notes on conceptualisation and measurement","authors":"Vuksan-Ćusa Bartul","doi":"10.2478/pce-2023-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2023-0007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper analyses individual-level populism in Croatia. Starting from the ideational definition of populism, the study tests to what extent the economic grievances, sociocultural and ideational explanations, respectively, reflect the average populism subscriber in Croatia. The analysis was made using hierarchical linear regression based on field survey data from 2020 (n=979). Results show how populism is mostly associated with authoritarianism, conspiratorial thinking and institutional (dis)trust. The economic grievances explanation has only marginal relevance, revealing that sociotropic perception is more important than the socioeconomic position of the individual. Furthermore, the study emphasises the importance of operationalising populism in accordance with the assumed structure of the concept. In the same vein, it is noted that populism on an attitudinal level should be separated from the concepts of thick ideologies. If this is not done with caution, the conclusions drawn are questionable, and the analytical contribution of populism is imprecisely determined.","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":"19 1","pages":"145 - 173"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42647027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The contribution focuses on the origin, genesis and transformation of (n)ostalgy in the new German Bundesländer. It focuses on the political-ideological, life biography, societal and economic frame of ostalgy and presents this phaenomenon as a general East-Central European feature. Later, it specifically analyses the East German case presenting and analysing the uniqueness of this case. The intra-German discourse is used as the main shape for such analysis, and the bipolarisation of the discourse and the stereotypes used. In the last analytical part we present the transmission of ostalgic supporters of the successor Party of Democratic Socialism towards the new radical party Alternative for Germany, showing the overlap of ostalgy as the socio-economic and ideo-political background with the new forms of anti-liberal and nativist stances.
{"title":"Ostalgy in Flux? Transformations of the concept reflected in the case of (East) Germany","authors":"Petr Körfer","doi":"10.2478/pce-2023-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2023-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The contribution focuses on the origin, genesis and transformation of (n)ostalgy in the new German Bundesländer. It focuses on the political-ideological, life biography, societal and economic frame of ostalgy and presents this phaenomenon as a general East-Central European feature. Later, it specifically analyses the East German case presenting and analysing the uniqueness of this case. The intra-German discourse is used as the main shape for such analysis, and the bipolarisation of the discourse and the stereotypes used. In the last analytical part we present the transmission of ostalgic supporters of the successor Party of Democratic Socialism towards the new radical party Alternative for Germany, showing the overlap of ostalgy as the socio-economic and ideo-political background with the new forms of anti-liberal and nativist stances.","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":"19 1","pages":"43 - 60"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42066140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Since the opening of its first restaurant in a communist country, which was Yugoslavia, not only is the huge success of the U.S. franchise something that was merely not supposed to happen, but ‘consuming McDonald’s’ has left its mark on the post ‑Yugoslav identity building process. Our central argument is that the singularity of the ‘McDonaldization of Serbia’ encompasses the interactions between expansion/ localness, dominance/adaptation and those who take part in this historical process which spans more than three decades, their responses that apprise, shape and constrain their everyday life conditions. This paper starts from the observation that most of the existing scholarly literature on identity building addresses the end of the Yugoslav experience whether through state narratives or identities introverted. We chose a different and understudied angle, which is a people ‑centred perspective. Accordingly, this paper uses different research methods under the umbrella of a biographical perspective from 1988 to 2021. Ethnographic fieldwork, comprising 45 semi ‑structured interviews with Belgradians, aims to expand scholarly knowledge on consumption and identity building in post ‑Yugoslav Serbia. In addition, conversations with influential individuals contributed to identify periods in the intermingled life of McDonald’s and people in contemporary Serbia. In the early 1990s, the McDonaldisation to some extent escalated cultural disputes between the republics against a backdrop of identity tensions. During the period spanning from the late years of Milosevic’s rule to the advent of Alexandar Vučić in 2012, political conflicts over sovereignty sparked ambiguous civic responses. Finally, McDonald’s has brought Serbs into the Western sphere which is probably best encapsulated in a local popular saying ‘McDonald’s is McDonald’s’ (‘Mek je Mek’), despite being considered ‘tasty’/unhealthy, expensive/rewarding or socially stimulating.
摘要自第一家餐厅在共产主义国家南斯拉夫开业以来，美国特许经营的巨大成功不仅是不应该发生的，而且“消费麦当劳”也在后南斯拉夫的身份建设过程中留下了印记。我们的核心论点是，“塞尔维亚麦当劳化”的独特性包括扩张/地方性、主导地位/适应与那些参与这一跨越三十多年的历史进程的人之间的互动，他们的反应影响、塑造和限制了他们的日常生活条件。本文首先观察到，大多数现有的关于身份建构的学术文献都通过国家叙事或身份内向来解决南斯拉夫经历的终结。我们选择了一个不同的、研究不足的角度，那就是以人为本的视角。因此，从1988年到2021年，本文在传记视角的保护伞下使用了不同的研究方法。民族志实地调查包括对贝尔格莱德人的45次半结构化采访，旨在扩大对后南斯拉夫塞尔维亚消费和身份认同建设的学术知识。此外，与有影响力的个人的对话有助于确定麦当劳和当代塞尔维亚人混合生活的时期。20世纪90年代初，在身份紧张的背景下，麦当劳化在一定程度上加剧了共和国之间的文化争端。从米洛舍维奇统治的最后几年到2012年亚历山大·武契奇的出现，围绕主权的政治冲突引发了模棱两可的公民反应。最后，麦当劳将塞尔维亚人带入了西方世界，这可能最好地体现在当地流行的一句话“麦当劳就是麦当劳”（“Mek je Mek”）中，尽管它被认为是“美味的”/不健康的、昂贵的/有回报的或有社会刺激性的。
{"title":"‘Sympathy for the Devil?’ McDonald’s between imperialism and the building of post-Yugoslav Serbian identity","authors":"Laurent Tournois","doi":"10.2478/pce-2023-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2023-0005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Since the opening of its first restaurant in a communist country, which was Yugoslavia, not only is the huge success of the U.S. franchise something that was merely not supposed to happen, but ‘consuming McDonald’s’ has left its mark on the post ‑Yugoslav identity building process. Our central argument is that the singularity of the ‘McDonaldization of Serbia’ encompasses the interactions between expansion/ localness, dominance/adaptation and those who take part in this historical process which spans more than three decades, their responses that apprise, shape and constrain their everyday life conditions. This paper starts from the observation that most of the existing scholarly literature on identity building addresses the end of the Yugoslav experience whether through state narratives or identities introverted. We chose a different and understudied angle, which is a people ‑centred perspective. Accordingly, this paper uses different research methods under the umbrella of a biographical perspective from 1988 to 2021. Ethnographic fieldwork, comprising 45 semi ‑structured interviews with Belgradians, aims to expand scholarly knowledge on consumption and identity building in post ‑Yugoslav Serbia. In addition, conversations with influential individuals contributed to identify periods in the intermingled life of McDonald’s and people in contemporary Serbia. In the early 1990s, the McDonaldisation to some extent escalated cultural disputes between the republics against a backdrop of identity tensions. During the period spanning from the late years of Milosevic’s rule to the advent of Alexandar Vučić in 2012, political conflicts over sovereignty sparked ambiguous civic responses. Finally, McDonald’s has brought Serbs into the Western sphere which is probably best encapsulated in a local popular saying ‘McDonald’s is McDonald’s’ (‘Mek je Mek’), despite being considered ‘tasty’/unhealthy, expensive/rewarding or socially stimulating.","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":"19 1","pages":"89 - 112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43777398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract More than thirty years after Hungary’s transition to democracy and the change of territorial governance model, the time is now right to assess the outcome. This paper is primarily an assessment, concluding that the deadlock of the Hungarian local government system can be explained not only by the centralisation efforts of the governing and opposition political elites or the continuous decline of the budgetary position, but also by the indifference of local society. The fact is that the Hungarian local governments were not protected from being squeezed out of a significant part of public services, from a narrowing of their room to manoeuvre and from their authority position being weakened, by the general constitutional provisions introduced in 1990. An important proposition of this paper is that (local) society, although still more trusting of local governments than the central government according to various surveys, has not been able to become an ‘ally’ of local governments. The question rightly posed in the title of the paper is, whose interest is the local government system, who finds the values of self ‑governance important? The paper seeks (based mainly on academic literature and on its own and secondary analyses) the reasons/changes that have led to the stalemate of Hungarian local governments despite their initially strong mandate.
{"title":"Cui prodest? Why local governance came to a deadlock in Hungary","authors":"László Kákai, I. Kovács","doi":"10.2478/pce-2023-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2023-0002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract More than thirty years after Hungary’s transition to democracy and the change of territorial governance model, the time is now right to assess the outcome. This paper is primarily an assessment, concluding that the deadlock of the Hungarian local government system can be explained not only by the centralisation efforts of the governing and opposition political elites or the continuous decline of the budgetary position, but also by the indifference of local society. The fact is that the Hungarian local governments were not protected from being squeezed out of a significant part of public services, from a narrowing of their room to manoeuvre and from their authority position being weakened, by the general constitutional provisions introduced in 1990. An important proposition of this paper is that (local) society, although still more trusting of local governments than the central government according to various surveys, has not been able to become an ‘ally’ of local governments. The question rightly posed in the title of the paper is, whose interest is the local government system, who finds the values of self ‑governance important? The paper seeks (based mainly on academic literature and on its own and secondary analyses) the reasons/changes that have led to the stalemate of Hungarian local governments despite their initially strong mandate.","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":"19 1","pages":"21 - 42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42118615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The study aims to analyse if the Hungarian prime minister attempted to portray an ‘other’ image of the Roma ethnic minority group during the segregated primary school conflict in Gyöngyöspata. Moreover, the study will explore the Hungarian prime minister’s discourse on the migration crisis to understand if Viktor Orbán adopted the same communication strategy as in the Gyöngyöspata conflict. Comparing the two cases will allow us to identify the key similarities and differences in the discourse adopted by the Hungarian prime minister in different events. This research uses the qualitative content analysis methodology to examine the collected data. Besides this, the study concludes that Viktor Orbán attempted to portray an ‘other’ image of the Roma ethnic minority group during the Gyöngyöspata conflict. This study aims to fill a gap in the literature by analysing the Hungarian prime minister’s discourse on the Gyöngyöspata conflict and comparing his discourse on both cases.
{"title":"The Populist Discourse of the Hungarian Prime Minister: The Case Study of Gyöngyöspata and Migration Crisis","authors":"Tofig Ismayilzada","doi":"10.2478/pce-2023-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2023-0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The study aims to analyse if the Hungarian prime minister attempted to portray an ‘other’ image of the Roma ethnic minority group during the segregated primary school conflict in Gyöngyöspata. Moreover, the study will explore the Hungarian prime minister’s discourse on the migration crisis to understand if Viktor Orbán adopted the same communication strategy as in the Gyöngyöspata conflict. Comparing the two cases will allow us to identify the key similarities and differences in the discourse adopted by the Hungarian prime minister in different events. This research uses the qualitative content analysis methodology to examine the collected data. Besides this, the study concludes that Viktor Orbán attempted to portray an ‘other’ image of the Roma ethnic minority group during the Gyöngyöspata conflict. This study aims to fill a gap in the literature by analysing the Hungarian prime minister’s discourse on the Gyöngyöspata conflict and comparing his discourse on both cases.","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":"19 1","pages":"1 - 20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45173096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Poor communication and weak coordination: Why is the development cooperation fragmented and international commitments to make it more efficient not working?","authors":"Šárka Waisová","doi":"10.2478/pce-2023-0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2023-0008","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":"19 1","pages":"175 - 181"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41585328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Earlier studies on party membership in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) led to the conclusion that political parties in new democracies are not inclined to build strong party organisations or invest in recruiting members. However, several recent individual country studies point to the opposite conclusions, indicating that there are significant cross ‑country variations in party membership figures across the post ‑communist region. By using a unique dataset on party membership in post ‑communist Europe, in this article we argue that the average membership level in CEE seems to be higher than in Western Europe. This holds true even when party membership figures for CEE countries are ‘corrected’ after conducting validity and reliability tests. Furthermore, we also find that party membership figures across CEE countries vary to a much higher degree than in established Western democracies. Our analysis shows that former Yugoslav countries are clustered at the top and other CEE countries at the bottom, leading to the conclusion that selection bias has been present in many studies on party membership that only included a limited number of post ‑communist countries. In order to explain higher levels of party membership in post ‑Yugoslav countries, we test three sets of explanatory variables, namely socialism, nationalism and clientelism. This exploratory study suggests that nationalist movements from the early period of transition, coupled with clientelistic politics, could serve as the most convincing explanation of high membership density in former Yugoslav countries.
{"title":"What Explains Party Membership in Post-Yugoslav Countries: Socialism, Nationalism, Clientelism or False Reporting?","authors":"Dario Nikić Čakar, Goran Čular","doi":"10.2478/pce-2023-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2023-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Earlier studies on party membership in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) led to the conclusion that political parties in new democracies are not inclined to build strong party organisations or invest in recruiting members. However, several recent individual country studies point to the opposite conclusions, indicating that there are significant cross ‑country variations in party membership figures across the post ‑communist region. By using a unique dataset on party membership in post ‑communist Europe, in this article we argue that the average membership level in CEE seems to be higher than in Western Europe. This holds true even when party membership figures for CEE countries are ‘corrected’ after conducting validity and reliability tests. Furthermore, we also find that party membership figures across CEE countries vary to a much higher degree than in established Western democracies. Our analysis shows that former Yugoslav countries are clustered at the top and other CEE countries at the bottom, leading to the conclusion that selection bias has been present in many studies on party membership that only included a limited number of post ‑communist countries. In order to explain higher levels of party membership in post ‑Yugoslav countries, we test three sets of explanatory variables, namely socialism, nationalism and clientelism. This exploratory study suggests that nationalist movements from the early period of transition, coupled with clientelistic politics, could serve as the most convincing explanation of high membership density in former Yugoslav countries.","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":"19 1","pages":"61 - 87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45389362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, the role and value of subnational research in comparative political science are further strengthened, given that the political life of society is moving in two interdependent directions: localisation and internationalisation. Instead, the specifics of the subnational topic contribute to changes and innovations in the implementation of various methodological techniques in the study of subnational units and their structural elements. However, the question of correlating outputs of techniques – objective and subjective – still remains unresolved, and therefore actualises the following formulation: how they appear equivalent in the practical plane, as their theoretical context is illustrated balanced within equivalence in spatial research politics on a subnational scale. In other words, whether the results of each technique are approximate or distinctive from each other from the point of view of the final situation. In the article, a variable degree of correlation has been demonstrated between both techniques and also a hypothesis has been presented about the nature and type of such interactions on the example of three cases (Transcarpathian, Lviv and Chernivtsi regions) in Ukraine in the period 2010–2015.
{"title":"A correlation of the measurement techniques and their outputs in the study of the subnational level of politics","authors":"V. Hnatiuk, Svitlana Bula","doi":"10.2478/pce-2022-0023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2022-0023","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, the role and value of subnational research in comparative political science are further strengthened, given that the political life of society is moving in two interdependent directions: localisation and internationalisation. Instead, the specifics of the subnational topic contribute to changes and innovations in the implementation of various methodological techniques in the study of subnational units and their structural elements. However, the question of correlating outputs of techniques – objective and subjective – still remains unresolved, and therefore actualises the following formulation: how they appear equivalent in the practical plane, as their theoretical context is illustrated balanced within equivalence in spatial research politics on a subnational scale. In other words, whether the results of each technique are approximate or distinctive from each other from the point of view of the final situation. In the article, a variable degree of correlation has been demonstrated between both techniques and also a hypothesis has been presented about the nature and type of such interactions on the example of three cases (Transcarpathian, Lviv and Chernivtsi regions) in Ukraine in the period 2010–2015.","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":"18 1","pages":"531 - 572"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44357193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper focuses on the communication of four Slovak political leaders about the European Union’s agenda on Facebook and their followers’ interactions. As cognitive authorities of their followers, politicians directly impact public perception of current news by providing their own opinions and views. The paper studies the politicians’ followers’ engagement through manual qualitative sentiment analysis. The results suggest that while moderate Facebook users who support the EU are not active and do not show their support openly, users who condemn the EU express their negative sentiments regardless of the politician’s sentiment in the post. If a politician praises the EU, the followers criticise it. If a politician criticises the EU, followers agree with them. That leads us to the conclusion that social media dynamised the concept of cognitive authority.
{"title":"Does hatred rule political communication on social media? How do politicians talk about the EU on Facebook, and how do their followers react?","authors":"K. Böhmer","doi":"10.2478/pce-2022-0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2022-0021","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper focuses on the communication of four Slovak political leaders about the European Union’s agenda on Facebook and their followers’ interactions. As cognitive authorities of their followers, politicians directly impact public perception of current news by providing their own opinions and views. The paper studies the politicians’ followers’ engagement through manual qualitative sentiment analysis. The results suggest that while moderate Facebook users who support the EU are not active and do not show their support openly, users who condemn the EU express their negative sentiments regardless of the politician’s sentiment in the post. If a politician praises the EU, the followers criticise it. If a politician criticises the EU, followers agree with them. That leads us to the conclusion that social media dynamised the concept of cognitive authority.","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":"18 1","pages":"477 - 498"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42040324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In the study we examine the pulling, pushing and pulling back factors and events that influenced civil activism in Hungary between 2010–2022, which was the period of the birth of illiberal democracy in the country. We describe – relying on newspaper reports – the most important events and campaigns in the given period and their effectiveness. In Hungary citizenship activity is at a low level, even within Central-Europe. The viability of civil society is decreasing, especially in terms of financing opportunities, legal environment, image of civil sphere and ability to interest representation. We found that between 2010–2022 the presence of grievances as triggers was constant in the country, while the opportunity structures for action narrowed somewhat, but the illiberal Hungarian system is restrictive and not oppressive. There is a way to protest, to act in a different way, and actions do take place, but it is rarely possible to influence decision-makers - mostly in simple matters that affect everyone. However, social movements do not only fight for instrumental goals, but they also mobilise people, build organisations, contribute to self-development, form collective identity and (re)socialise the participants. These are important consequences even if the instrumental goals are not achieved.
{"title":"Power and powerlessness of the civil society in Hungarian illiberal democracy between 2010–2022","authors":"V. Havasi","doi":"10.2478/pce-2022-0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2478/pce-2022-0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the study we examine the pulling, pushing and pulling back factors and events that influenced civil activism in Hungary between 2010–2022, which was the period of the birth of illiberal democracy in the country. We describe – relying on newspaper reports – the most important events and campaigns in the given period and their effectiveness. In Hungary citizenship activity is at a low level, even within Central-Europe. The viability of civil society is decreasing, especially in terms of financing opportunities, legal environment, image of civil sphere and ability to interest representation. We found that between 2010–2022 the presence of grievances as triggers was constant in the country, while the opportunity structures for action narrowed somewhat, but the illiberal Hungarian system is restrictive and not oppressive. There is a way to protest, to act in a different way, and actions do take place, but it is rarely possible to influence decision-makers - mostly in simple matters that affect everyone. However, social movements do not only fight for instrumental goals, but they also mobilise people, build organisations, contribute to self-development, form collective identity and (re)socialise the participants. These are important consequences even if the instrumental goals are not achieved.","PeriodicalId":37403,"journal":{"name":"Politics in Central Europe","volume":"18 1","pages":"499 - 529"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46773992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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