Greater than the sum of its part(ie)s: opposition comeback in the 2019 Hungarian local elections

Kovarek, Daniel; Littvay, Levente

doi:10.1080/21599165.2022.2038571

Cited by 13 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Despite being neutral, these measures disproportionately decreased revenues of certain local municipalities, especially the opposition-led capital. Messages that certain funds would decrease in case opposition won the capital had been voiced by Fidesz politicians already during the electoral campaign before the pandemic had created the new pretexts (Euronews 2021 ; Hajnal et al 2021 ; Kovarek and Littvay 2022 ).…”

Section: Praxis Of Subnational Illiberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Playbook of Subnational Illiberalism: Autocrats Face the Opposition-led Local Governments

Begadze¹

2022

Hague J Rule Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recognizing the growing tensions between autocrats in the center and opposition-led local governments in Hungary, Poland and Turkey since 2018–2019 local elections, the article contributes to existing literature on illiberal democracies with a subnational portion of illiberal playbook. Tactics identified through the detailed study of the European context and brief review of Latin American experience leaves us with the following categories in the playbook: abuse of (existing) supervisory and accountability mechanisms; generating of financial vulnerability; centralization (outright and indirect) and deconcentration. Each of these categories assemble various means evolving through application and reinterpretation of traditional rules pertaining to local government, as well as crisis-induced innovations. While the Polish account carries the optimism still that antecedent robust guarantees and popular support matter even when illiberals rule the center, the playbook proved successful in Hungary and Turkey. Although certain incrementalism stayed as the most vulnerable actors were the first victims of soon-to-be normalized measures, crisis in Hungary and Poland did stretch the limits to the point that ulterior motives of undermining opposition-led local governments became publicly observable. Reflecting on this phenomenon, in the end, the article poses a theoretical question whether such pretextual instrumentalization of law can itself be judicially manageable, at least in situations when clear political opponents are targeted.

show abstract

Section: Praxis Of Subnational Illiberalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Playbook of Subnational Illiberalism: Autocrats Face the Opposition-led Local Governments

Begadze¹

2022

Hague J Rule Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite being neutral, these measures disproportionately decreased revenues of certain local municipalities, especially the opposition-led capital. Messages that certain funds would decrease in case opposition won the capital had been voiced by Fidesz politicians already during the electoral campaign before the pandemic had created the new pretexts (Euronews 2021;Hajnal et al 2021;Kovarek and Littvay 2022).…”

Section: Subnational Illiberalism During Crisis In Turkey and Hungarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Playbook of Subnational Illiberalism: Autocrats face the Opposition-led Local Governments

Begadze

2022

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…DOI: 10 .2478/auscom-2022-0005 Pécs Chatter. A Digital Anthropological Study on the Impact… Various new phenomena might have played a role in this outcome: the coordinated nomination of candidates by the opposition parties, the emergence of independent candidates and electoral organizations, the active use of social media in the opposition campaign on Social Network Sites (SNS), and the newly developed preselection process to select the seemingly successful candidates for mayors and municipal representatives (Kovarek-Littvay, 2022) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pécs Chatter. A Digital Anthropological Study on the Impact of a Facebook Group on Local Politics

Bódi

Mester

2022

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Communicatio

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research on the political role of digital media, including social media, is often based on the assumption that new communication platforms can contribute to new forms of political participation such as taking part in deliberative political debates more actively and exercising the right to vote more often. Most of the studies focus on national processes: nationwide political campaigns and general elections. In this paper, we offer a different angle on these issues, focusing on a specific locality, more specifically the activities of a politically themed local Facebook group in a middle-sized town in Hungary. We also apply a digital anthropology approach that enables us to use a hybrid methodology combining online and offline tools in our research design. Results are presented in this paper in a research report format. We are far from a final conclusion about the interplay of social media use and political activity, but hopefully the experiences we share will shed some light on the functioning of these types of online communities.

show abstract

Greater than the sum of its part(ie)s: opposition comeback in the 2019 Hungarian local elections

Cited by 13 publications

References 26 publications

Playbook of Subnational Illiberalism: Autocrats Face the Opposition-led Local Governments

Playbook of Subnational Illiberalism: Autocrats Face the Opposition-led Local Governments

Playbook of Subnational Illiberalism: Autocrats face the Opposition-led Local Governments

Pécs Chatter. A Digital Anthropological Study on the Impact of a Facebook Group on Local Politics

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About