Carl Schmitt in Hungary: Constitutional Crisis in the Shadow of Covid-19

In recent years, the literature on public health interventions and health outcomes in the context of epidemic and pandemic response has grown immensely. However, relatively few of these studies have situated their findings within the institutional, political, organizational, and governmental (IPOG) context in which interventions and outcomes exist. This conceptual mapping scoping study synthesized the published literature on the impact of IPOG factors on epidemic and pandemic response and critically examined definitions and uses of the terms IPOG in this literature. This research involved a comprehensive search of four databases across the social, health, and biomedical sciences as well as multi-level eligibility screening conducted by two independent reviewers. Data on the temporal, geographic, and topical range of studies were extracted, then descriptive statistics were calculated to summarize these data. Hybrid inductive and deductive qualitative analysis of the full-text articles was conducted to critically analyze the definitions and uses of these terms in the literature. The searches retrieved 4,918 distinct articles; 65 met the inclusion criteria and were thus reviewed. These articles were published from 2004 to 2022, were mostly written about COVID-19 (61.5%), and most frequently engaged with the concept of governance (36.9%) in relation to epidemic and pandemic response. Emergent themes related to the variable use of the investigated terms, the significant increase in relevant literature published amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a lack of consistent definitions used across all four terms: institutions, politics, organizations, and governance. This study revealed opportunities for health systems researchers to further engage in interdisciplinary work with fields such as law and political science, to become more forthright in defining factors which shape responses to epidemics and pandemics, and to develop greater consistency in using these IPOG terms in order to lessen confusion among a rapidly growing body of literature.

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Understanding drivers of illiberal entrenchment at critical junctures: institutional responses to COVID-19 in Hungary and Poland

Hajnal

Jeziorska

Kovács

2021

International Review of Administrative Sciences

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The present article aims to improve understanding of institution formation in (former) liberal-democratic polities characterized by autocratization tendencies. We examine how the critical juncture created by the COVID-19 pandemic was used, as well as the interplay between antecedent, structural conditions and the particular combinations of political agency and contingency. By comparing the two similar cases of Hungary and Poland – the two European Union countries that have progressed the farthest towards illiberal transformation – and using documentary and interview evidence, we conclude that: (1) whereas Hungary exhibited significant institutional changes, Poland did not; (2) these differences in institutional outcomes can be significantly attributed to differences in certain critical antecedent conditions; and (3) the ability of key political actors – Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Poland’s Jarosław Kaczyński – to control their own political camp seems to have exerted an unmistakable effect as well. Points for practitioners The build-up and entrenchment of institutions of illiberal rule in (previously) liberal-democratic contexts are encumbered by diverse political and institutional constraints. External shocks, such as the COVID-19 crisis, may offer an opportunity to bypass those constraints and to change institutions permanently. Our study concludes that the extent to which such historical windows of opportunity can indeed be used to achieve lasting institutional changes depends not only on the objective, historically given political and institutional constraints that illiberal reforms face, but also on their subjective ability to act in a controlled, coordinated and coherent manner.

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Carl Schmitt in Hungary: Constitutional Crisis in the Shadow of Covid-19

Cited by 6 publications

References 1 publication

The Grey Areas of Democracy: Indifference and the Erosion of Democratic Principles from Within

The Grey Areas of Democracy: Indifference and the Erosion of Democratic Principles from Within

How have researchers defined institutions, politics, organizations and governance in research related to epidemic and pandemic response? A scoping review to map current concepts

Understanding drivers of illiberal entrenchment at critical junctures: institutional responses to COVID-19 in Hungary and Poland

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