Illiberal challenges to mainstream public management research: Hungary as an exemplary case

ABSTRACT

The apparently successful early years of post-transition democratization and consolidation of Hungary’s system of governance gave space, increasingly, to a remarkable fatigue and stagnation of the post-accession years. This was the starting point of the genuine and drastic transformation of governance and of the entirety of state–society relations having taken place since 2010. The article argues that Hungary’s public management landscape is dominated by this grand illiberal transformation; that the significance of this transformation extends well beyond the region; and that this significance is not only practical but poses true challenges to mainstream theorizing in public management, too.

KEYWORDS:

• Public management research
• Hungary
• Central and Eastern Europe
• illiberal transformation of government

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1.  Confronting the terminological turmoil characterizing studies of ‘democratic backsliding’, I tend to subscribe to the approach of Lührmann and Lindberg (2019), who define autocratization as the most overarching concept, encompassing similar phenomena in broadly different contexts, ranging from hard-liner autocracies to established, high-quality democracies. In their view, Hungary falls into the terminological category of ‘democratic recession’ (1097). While agreeing with their concept and acknowledging the arguments behind their terminological choices, I still prefer the term ‘illiberal (democracy)’ to denote the Hungarian case of democratic recession, for two reasons. Firstly, ‘recession’ implies a somewhat unintended and spontaneous process which, as I will show later, is definitely not the case for the Hungarian transformation, which is long term, carefully designed and systemic. Secondly, ‘illiberal democracy’ is a term used by the ‘reformers’ themselves, such as Prime Minister Orbán (in a public speech held at Tusványos on 26 July 2014; for an English language summary see e.g. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0574f7f2-17f3-11e4-b842-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3ExyGRrtE [last accessed 2 October 2019]). The term thus reflects the systemic nature of the phenomenon in another way.

2.  ‘Public Administration and Public Service Development Strategy 2014–2020ʹ, accepted by Government Resolution 1052/2015.

3.  Comments and suggestions for this section received from prof. György Gajduschek (Corvinus University of Budapest and Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre for Excellence) are hereby thankfully acknowledged.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

György Hajnal

György Hajnal is professor at the Corvinus University of Budapest, and directs of the University’s Institute of Economic and Social Policy. He also holds a part-time position of Tenured Research Chair of Public Policy and Governance at the Centre for Social Research of the Hungarian Academy of Science. He completed his Ph.D. studies at Corvinus University in 2005 where he researched problems of comparative administrative culture and comparative public management reforms. He was senior researcher, and subsequently headed the successor organization, of the Hungarian Institute of Public Administration until 2010. In addition to his academic positions he served as consultant to various domestic and international governmental and business entities. His current research interests extend to comparative analysis of public management reforms and reform doctrines at central and local levels, administrative culture, and the structural dynamics of central government organization, with a prime focus on the Central and Eastern European region. He published articles in journals such as Administration and Society, International Journal of Public Administration, the Journal of Public Affairs Education, and Public Management Review, and contributed to publications by publishers such as Routledge, Palgrave and Edward Elgar. He has leading positions in the discipline’s international academic organizations, being currently the President of NISPAcee (Network of Institutes and Schools in Central and Eastern Europe) and the Vice-President for Eastern Europe of IRSPM (International Research Society for Public Management).