Strategies for Survival: Human Rights Organizations’ Responses to the Closing of Political Opportunity Structures in Hungary

Abstract

<jats:p>In the last decade, there has been a tendency for governments to impose tighter restrictions on civil society organizations, especially those promoting democracy and human rights. In this study, we examine how human rights organizations are responding to the increasingly hostile political environment in Hungary. The expanding limits on civil society organizations is usually discussed within a framework labelled as the closing space for civil society, which emphasizes the legislation and governmental actions directly attacking civil society organizations. Despite the impression that the restrictions threaten the existence of these organizations, a closer examination reveals that well-established organizations are capable of developing coping strategies to survive. To fully understand how these strategies are developed, we need to supplement this framework with the theory of political opportunity structures. This broader theoretical perspective examines the openness of decision-making processes for non-ruling actors and includes the role of perceptions in the examination of reactions to changes in the opportunity structure. As our study shows, perceptions about the social environment have a crucial role in understanding the strategies of human rights organizations. Examining the reactions of ten organizations, primarily using the method of organizational interviews, we show that rather than direct restrictions attacking civil society organizations, the major factor shaping their strategies is the closing of political opportunities. As a consequence of an almost total closure of decision-making mechanisms, they have been changing their activities from focusing on their roles as experts and working with state institutions to emphasizing social embeddedness, community building and raising awareness.</jats:p>

Resisting Genderphobia in Hungary

“…Following these changes, the uncertainty of the legal environment and the bureaucratic hurdles for CSOs have increased, while their public funds have decreased. In 2013-2014 there was also a campaign launched by the government to harass organizations that received and distributed grants from the Norwegian Civil Fund (Gerő et al, 2022). Most of these grants were used in projects focusing on thematic areas such as human rights and democracy, gender and equal opportunity, and Roma integration (Molnár, 2020).…”

Demobilization Processes

“…As part of the Orbán regime's centralizing politics, the civil sphere has been restrained, since civil society organizations, and especially those who work for human rights protection, perceive shrinking political opportunities (Gerő et al, 2020). Moreover, a significant part of Hungarian civil society actors, particularly those who have criticized the government, are intimidated and stigmatized (Freedom House Country Report, 2018; Maerz et al, 2020).…”

“…Hungary has a special position in Europe because of its obvious backlash in democracy (Buzogány, 2017;Bogaards, 2018) and the increasing state repression against civil society organizations and academia (Enyedi, 2018;Gerő et al, 2020;Kuti, 2016). As an illiberal state, it aims to control both parliamentary and street politics (e.g.…”

“…Prime Minister Viktor Orbán often speaks against liberal values(Kopper et al, 2017) and the government uses measures to restrict civil organizations that represent liberal values or stand for human rights (Gerő et al, 2020;. Torma, 2016).…”

Multilevel Venue Shopping Amid Democratic Backsliding in New European Union Member States

“…A recent contribution by Pospieszna and Vetulani-Cęgiel (2021) indeed demonstrated that disadvantaged Polish interest groups are coalescing and doubling down on their networking strategies to navigate the increasingly authoritarian context. Yet the closure of the political opportunity structure (POS) might prompt groups to withdraw from policy-makers altogether (Gerő et al, 2020).…”