Legacies and recipe of constructing successful righteous motherhood policies: The case of Hungary

Abstract

This study will show how the Hungarian ruling FIDESZ government has built its so-called family-friendly system, which has both nationalized and privatized the process of reproduction together. First, we discuss the demographic discourse and family mainstreaming as the basis of “righteous motherhood” producing more children together with hate campaigns, second, we argue that one of the reasons why most women voted for FIDESZ despite the collapsing health care system, the education system, growing inflation, corruption, and Putin's friendship is exactly the convincingly crafted cult of righteous motherhood. While some of the literature still uses Nazi Germany as a historical analogy to explain the FIDESZ government's family policy as forcing women back into the kitchen, with this it loses the ability to recognize what is new in the illiberal politics with its built-in conscious application of ambiguities of righteous motherhood, we call Janus-faced, secures electoral support to these regimes.