This book emphasises the importance of state-business relations and external capital for structuring and strengthening authoritarian populism in Hungary. It argues these capitalist relations are crucial to understanding the economic aspects of this ideology, which has developed in the country since 2010. The book investigates both ‘internal’ and ‘external’ legs of the Hungarian political economy. First how a politically loyal national capital owning class has subsumed domestic business. Second the government’s operationalisation of ‘new’ inward transnational capital inflows – especially from China and Russia – to finance large-scale infrastructure projects, which complement extant investment particularly from Germany. Together, these developments have strengthened the hegemonic nature of Hungarian Authoritarian Populism, helping the government to continued electoral success. This model of governance is attractive to similar ideological expressions in the region and beyond who look for an example to emulate.

"This book emphasises the importance of state-business relations and external capital for structuring and strengthening authoritarian populism in Hungary. It argues these capitalist relations are crucial to understanding the economic aspects of this ideology, which has developed in the country since 2010. The book investigates both 'internal' and 'external' legs of the Hungarian political economy. First how a politically loyal national capital owning class has subsumed domestic business. Second the government's operationalisation of 'new' inward transnational capital inflows - especially from China and Russia - to finance large-scale infrastructure projects, which complement extant investment particularly from Germany. Together, these developments have strengthened the hegemonic nature of Hungarian Authoritarian Populism, helping the government to continued electoral success. This model of governance is attractive to similar ideological expressions in the region and beyond who look for an example to emulate"--

This book explores the political economy of Hungary from the mid-1970s to the present. Widely considered a ‘poster boy’ of neoliberal transformation in post-communist Eastern Europe until the mid-2000s, Hungary has in recent years developed into a model ‘illiberal’ regime. Constitutional checks-and-balances are non-functioning; the independent media, trade unions, and civil society groups are constantly attacked by the authorities; there is widespread intolerance against minorities and refugees; and the governing FIDESZ party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, controls all public institutions and increasingly large parts of the country’s economy. To make sense of the politico-economical roller coaster that Hungary has experienced in the last four decades, Fabry employs a Marxian political economy approach, emphasising competitive accumulation, class struggle (both between capital and labour, as well as different ‘fractions of capital’), and uneven and combined development. The author analyses the neoliberal transformation of the Hungarian political economy and argues that the drift to authoritarianism under the Orbán regime cannot be explained as a case of Hungarian exceptionalism, but rather represents an outcome of the inherent contradictions of the variety of neoliberalism that emerged in Hungary after 1989.

This book offers a deep historical and theoretical investigation into how this authoritarian, populist regime has evolved. Backlash from globalization in the 21st century, dissatisfaction with the European Union and international fiscal institutions have created a situation in which Orbán's regime is able to thrive.

The book assesses the development of the Orbán regime in Hungary after 2010 through analyzing the polity-politics-policy impacts from a perspective of populism as an ideology focusing on discourse and actual decisions. By closely scrutinizing political narratives, actual decisions and survey data, this volume offers a systematic analysis of the impact of populism on the polity-politics-policy aspects of the political in Hungary after 2010. It analyzes the uses of constitutionalism and discriminatory legalism, the changes in the quality of democracy, the government’s relationship with media and journalism, its influence over the party system and EU politics, and its approach to family and cultural policies. While each chapter in the volume describes the findings in response to the corresponding literature highlighting the added value of the individual analyses, the book interprets the overall results under the notion of "smart populism" where the moral definition of "the people" allows for little political opposition, "the elite" is selected based on its multifaceted applicability for a political narrative and "the will of the people" is determined from above. The volume also suggests responses to "smart populism". The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of democracy, party politics the rise of populism and contemporary Hungarian politics.

Hungary in State of Exception seeks to analyze the transboundary exchange of political and economic ideas through the global neoliberal hegemonic struggle. Neoliberalism, as a economic and political ideology, defined the history of Hungary not just in the 21st century, but in the troubled 20th century. Eastern Europe played a crucial role in neoliberalism’s rise to control globalized capitalism, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have constantly an incubator of and experimental laboratory for new types of neoliberal capitalism. Antal arguesthat neoliberalism, like populism, is historically embedded in Hungarian political history, its the political form is economic and governmental exceptionalism. This book reveals the common history of Western- and Eastern-style neoliberalism from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the contemporary COVID-19 crisis. Without emphasis on the century of neoliberalization of CEE, the contemporary rise of regional authoritarianism cannot be understood. Antal also details the relationship between Orbán’s rise and contemporary neoliberal politics in CEE.