8 March in a hotel in Mar-a-Lago, Florida ruling Hungary Viktor Orbán, liable for the collapse of democracy in his country, met with the erstwhile president of the United States and now the most likely candidate To this office for the Republican Party, Donald Trump.
Since 2010, Orbán has served as Head of the Hungarian Government. Under its leadership, Hungary has become the first undemocratic – or "non-liberal“ As Orbán himself proudly stated, the state in the European Union. Trump, on the another hand, did not admire the Hungarian Prime Minister and his authoritarian urges erstwhile both gentlemen met at the White home in 2019"They respect you all over Europe. Of course you're a small controversial, like me, but that's okay. You are doing a large occupation making your country safe.”
I've been looking at both gentlemen's affair with nonliberalism for a long time. Although I am presently in the United States as academicIn 2010, erstwhile Orbán came to power, I was elected to the Hungarian Parliament.
Today, as the United States prepares for Donald Trump's possible second term, Americans have the right to wonder if Trump America will be mirror image of Orbánowski Hungary.
I inactive remember the breeze of spring the day I walked up the stairs of the National Assembly in a recently purchased suit. As recently elected members of Parliament, me and my fellow Members of the Green organization have taken positions with large hopes, detailed plans to repair the limping Hungarian economy and enter the way of sustainable development.
I besides remember a cold winter day a year and a half later erstwhile We chained ourselves to the parliament building in protest against the demolition of the parliamentary process and the reversal of the Government of Orbán from democracy.
If Parliament is the political heart of democracy, it stopped beating in Hungary around 2012.
Orbán and his organization subdued democratic institutions. In addition to these, the national right-wing media network is an essential component of authoritarian power. As he commented Voice of America In 2022, Orbán's allies “created an omnipresent, conservative media ecosystem that dominated ether and mostly echoed the government's position.”
The Hungarian government besides submitted to local elections, changing the boundaries of districts and allowing voters to registration outside the territory of residenceWhich is in the interests of Orbán and his party. At the DA's office, he hired faithful officersso that no misdemeanors of politicians stay in power are likely to come to light.
A akin way is followed by Republicans whose support for Trump does not weaken even erstwhile his rhetoric is becoming more and more Turns towards authoritarianism. Trump late stated that if he wins the election, he would like to stay for 1 day “A dictatorIt’s okay. ” According to a fresh survey 74% Republican voters He thinks it's a good idea.
Orbán has devoted many years to destroying the independency of the Hungarian justice system, so that court judgments are always in the head of his government and allies. Although the American ultimate Court remains an independent institution, it is due to three judges appointed by Trump became the base of Trumpism, issuing repealing judgments constitutional right to abortion and limiting civilian rights. On the another hand, right-wing media specified as Fox and 1 America News are liable for the fact that a large part of America sees the planet through Trump's eyes.
Authoritarian populists bend democratic rules for their individual and political interests. Overcoming democracy from within, without recourse to force and repression, it enables leaders specified as Orbán and Trump to keep democratic appearances. This version of authoritarianism creates force points that may not completely destruct the opposition, but make it hard for it to have any effect on reality.
Why do politicians get distant with utilizing these anti-democratic methods? If the example of Hungary can teach us something, it is that democracy cannot last in a divided society in which many people are left to themselves economically.
The real power of authoritarian populists specified as Trump or Orbán lies not in institutions that subdue themselves, but in the recently formed electorate that supports them.
This electorate consists of 2 types of voters. The first are the electorate's keen, far right, driven by fanaticism and hatred from fear of the cultural threat posed by globalisation. But the biggest success is achieved by right-wing populists who gain support voters from the working classsuffering from the economical impact of globalisation.
Throughout the 20th century, American democrats and centre-left European parties have offered political asylum to people afraid of economical insecurity. This created convenient conditions for a political strategy that has become a origin of equality and healthy social fabric, giving people reason to take care of liberal democratic institutions.
But erstwhile the economy is bad, disillusionment with capitalism Turns into apathy towards liberal democracy. And if the liberal center doesn't see the problem, the authoritarian populists, able to mobilize voters against both, are going to vote. Threats globalisation – cultural and economic.
In Hungary, the first symptoms of authoritarianism appeared in economically backward agrarian areas and in tiny and average provincial cities long before Orbán's triumph in 2010. While these towns faced expanding mortality, desindustrialisation and income decline, the parties of the liberal center praised the advantages of globalisation in isolation from the regular economical experience of their residents' uncertainty. The disregard of this problem led to political death a democratic center.
Currently, liberal and leftist parties in Hungary moved to large cities, leaving their erstwhile capes in provinces on the far right. The same thing happens in the US, where the Republican organization begins to be a working class party and residents of non-metropolitan areas.
The success of authoritarian populism in Hungary is not optimistic. But not everything is lost: Americans inactive have time to learn from Hungarian mistakes.
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Gábor Scheiring – a sociologist of politics, a investigator visiting the Center for European Studies at Harvard University and a political aide at Georgetown University, Qatar. Book author The Retreat of Liberal Democracy ( Liberal democracy in reverse).
Article published in stock The Conversation under Creative Commons. She translated Anna Opara from English.
