After 30 transitional years of democracy

Abstract

After World War II, Hungary was a Soviet satellite state for decades. 1989 marked the start of a democratic and pluralistic era. In the last decade, as in many of the post-Soviet countries, a new model, so-called illiberal democracy, has emerged in Hungary. This chapter focuses on answering the following questions. How do young Hungarians who were born after the regime change participate in society? Do they follow the passive behaviour patterns of their parents, or are they more open to civic participation? How do they evaluate Hungarian illiberal democracy? Is there any connection between their civic activity and evaluation of democracy? In order to address these questions, young people’s perceptions of the status of democracy are examined based on the V-Dem Report (Lührmann et al., 2018) report using key indicators. Their citizenship activity is analysed using the Citizenship Behaviour Questionnaire (CBQ). Which comprises four sub-dimensions: social, political, action for change and personal activity. A total of 377 students, from different universities, participated in the study. Outcomes reveal the crucial problems of democracy as seen by young Hungarians – the expanding political control over the media and the antidemocratic ways parties try to get more votes. Students seem more interested in semi-active and personal forms of activities than passive citizenship although passive citizenship behaviour is associated with all the democracy dimensions. Students scoring high on passive citizenship statements perceive the status of democracy to be better. Similarly, semi-active citizenship activity negatively correlates with Freedom of Speech and Action, Election Honesty and Democracy in general.