INCREASING EUPOPULISM AS A MEGATREND IN EAST CENTRAL EUROPE: FROM FACADE DEMOCRACIES TO VELVET DICTATORSHIPS

Attila Ágh

doi:10.15388/bjps.2016.5.10334

Abstract

Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 US presidential election has launched a wave of discussions in the international media and political science literature on “authoritarian populism” and a “populist explosion.” Although this paper also reflects on this new wave of populism in the West, it concentrates on the connections between democracy’s decline and the so-called populist explosion in eastern central Europe (ECE) and closely investigates the Hungarian case within the context of ECE. This paper describes populism in ECE as a product of the transition from fading facade democracies to emerging velvet dictatorships. These velvet dictatorships rely on the soft power of media and communication rather on the hard power of state violence. Paradoxically, the ruling anti-elite populist parties have developed a system of populism from above, managed by the new politico-business elite. Populism (social and national) and Euroscepticism are the two most basic, and twin, terms used to describe these new (semi)authoritarian regimes. Populism and Euroscepticism are convertible; they are two sides of the same coin as they express the same divergence from the EU mainstream. Therefore, this paper introduces the term: Eupopulism.

Highlights

INCREASING EUPOPULISM AS A MEGATREND IN EAST CENTRAL EUROPE Populism’s many faces change within different socio-political environments, it is very difficult to give a comprehensive definition of populism
Populism may be an important feature of the party system in the West, but it has been much more influential in eastern central Europe where there has been a megatrend in party development due to ECE’s populations’ high and unmet expectations
A closer analysis of the periods and types of populism in ECE leads to a discussion of the weak and volatile party systems in ECE; Eupopulism as a megatrend has penetrated the political system as a whole in ECE, it characterizes the ECE countries to different extents and in various ways

Summary

INTRODUCTION

INCREASING EUPOPULISM AS A MEGATREND IN EAST CENTRAL EUROPE Populism’s many faces change within different socio-political environments, it is very difficult to give a comprehensive definition of populism. The basic statement of this paper is that the main reason behind ECE’s populism is the region’s failure to catch up to the West and “return to Europe.”. This unsuccessful attempt to achieve the so-called central European dream (Darvas, 2014) has defined the region’s last quarter century. Populism may be an important feature of the party system in the West, but it has been much more influential in eastern central Europe where there has been a megatrend in party development due to ECE’s populations’ high and unmet expectations. Populism is not a new phenomenon in ECE, populism has a long history in the region and its path, characteristically, includes many forms of populist movements and narratives. These formal, electoral democracies, instead of have becoming substantial liberal democracies, have turned into facades of democracy.

SOFT AND HARD POPULISM

CRITICAL ELECTIONS AND VICTORIOUS POPULIST-PROTEST PARTIES IN ECE

THE WORST CASE SCENARIO

Findings

CONCLUSION