This conceptually synthetic and empirically rich book demonstrates the vulnerability of democratic settings to authoritarianism and populism. Six scholars from various professional fields explore here the metamorphosis of a political party into a centralized authoritarian system. Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party needed less than ten years to accomplish this transformation in Hungary. In 2010, after winning a majority that could make changes in the constitution - two-thirds of the parliamentary seats, they evolved and stabilized the system, which produced again the two-thirds majority in 2014 and 2018.

The authors reveal how a democratic setting can be used as a device for political capture. They show how a political entity managed to penetrate almost all sub-fields of the economy to arrive at institutionalized corruption, and how the centralized power structure reproduces itself. With the help of a powerful empirical apparatus-among others analyses of more than 220,000 public tenders, redistributions of state subsidies, and the interconnectedness of those privileged with the political elite - the authors detail the functioning of a crony system and the network aspects of political connections in the rapid enrichment of politically-linked businesses. Their studies demonstrate the role of political capture in this redistribution and how this capture leads to a new social stratification.

About the Author
Maria Csanadi is DSc in political science, scientific advisor, emerita at Institute of Economics of the Centre for Economic and Regional Studies in Hungary. Marton Gero is Assistant professor of sociology at the Eoetvoes Lorand University, Faculty of Social Sciences and a research fellow at the Centre for Social Sciences. Miklos Hajdu is MSc in survey statistics, assistant lecturer at the Corvinus University of Budapest. Imre Kovach is DSc in sociology, Scientific advisor, Institute of Sociology CSS, professor, University of Debrecen, head of Sociology PhD program. Istvan Janos Toth is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Economics of Centre for Economic and Regional Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and managing director of Corruption Research Center Budapest (CRCB). Mihaly Laki, DSc of economics is scientific advisor, emeritus, Institute of Economics. From 1968 he was working at the Institute for Economic and Market Research (KOPINT), and from 1982 at the Research Institute of Cooperatives. He had been a research fellow of the Institute of Economics since 1989. His research field covers empirical and theoretical research on issues on firm behavior, privatization, entrepreneurship and market structures in transitional countries, especially in Hungary.

Reviews
"This is a dazzling book, researched in depth, elegantly presented and brilliantly argued. I am not aware of any other book that analyses the workings of the Orban regime as comprehensively and as insightfully as this volume. This impressive book brings the Orban dictatorship into full focus and should be in every serious university library." https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2023.2205320 -- Sabrina P. Ramet * Europe-Asia Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9789633865774
Author Maria Csanadi
Format Hardback
Page Count 375
Imprint Central European University Press
Publisher Central European University Press
Weight(grams) 669g