Brave New Hungary: Mapping the "System of National Cooperation"

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Brave New Hungary focuses on the rise of a brave new anti-liberal regime led by Viktor Orbn who made a decisive contribution to the transformation of a poorly managed liberal democracy to a well-organized authoritarian rule bordering on autocracy during the past decade. Emerging capitalism in post-1989 Hungary that once took pride in winning the Eastern European race for catching up with the West has evolved into a reclusive, statist, national-populist system reminding the observers of its communist and pre-communist predecessors. Going beyond the self-description of the Orbn regime that emphasizes its Christian-conservative and illiberal nature, the authors, leading experts of Hungarian politics, history, society, and economy, suggest new ways to comprehend the sharp decline of the rule of law in an EU member state. Their case studies cover crucial fields of the new authoritarian power, ranging from its historical roots and constitutional properties to media and social policies. The volume presents the Hungarian System of National Cooperation as a pervasive but in many respects improvised and vulnerable experiment in social engineering, rather than a set of mature and irreversible institutions. The originality of this dystopian new world does not stem from the transition to authoritarian control per se but its plurality of meanings. It can be seen as a simulacrum that shows different images to different viewers and perpetuates itself by its post-truth variability. Rather than pathologizing the current Hungarian regime as a result of a unique master plan designed by a cynical political entrepreneur, the authors show the transnational dynamic of backsliding a warning for other countries that suffer from comparable deadlocks of liberal democracy.

Reviews

This is a useful collection of articles on an important issue in contemporary European politics ----the question of what to do about the authoritarian.

* Slavonic & East European Review *
Brave New Hungary is an extremely well informed and insightful volume about Hungary's drift towards authoritarianism, brilliantly put in context of European politics and challenges of the modern day. -- Jan T. Gross, Princeton University
This volume avoids the trap of defining contemporary Hungary through catchy epithets, one-dimensional descriptions, and monocausal interpretations. It puts the brave new regime of the country and its firebrand leader in a historical perspective which does not make them appear radically innovative, and nevertheless it allows us to see novel trends. The contributors explore a society whose fascist and communist past facilitates accommodation to a government which, according to changing conjunctures, rationalizes its policies as civic and authoritarian, paternalist and disciplinarian, pro-European and nationalist, modern and tradition-bound, and which poses not only as champion of tolerance but also as standard-bearer of religious chauvinism. They decipher symbols and discourses, they investigate techniques of socialization, and they try to situate Hungary in a regional and European context. Their chapters deepen our understanding of society, culture, and politics under a controversial regime much appreciated in radically conservative milieus in Europe and way beyond it. -- Gbor T. Rittersporn, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
Thirty years ago many believed that the future of Hungary and the other post-communist countries was to learn from the liberal West. Todays danger is that a virulent populism learns from an anti-liberal Hungary. Brave New Hungary is a trenchant analysis of how Orbnization came about, how it operates, and how it might spread. This realistic dystopia is a must-read for anyone concerned about threats to democracy. -- David Stark, Columbia University

Author Bio

Jnos Matyas Kovcs is senior member in the Institute of East European History at the University of Vienna.


Balazs Trencsenyi is professor of history at Central European University.