De-democratization in Hungary: diffusely defective democracy

Figures & data

Table 1. Defective democracy in Hungary: quantitative indicators.

BTI indicator	Democratic defect	2006	2008	2010	2012	2014	2016
Free elections	Exclusive democracy	10	10	10	9	9	7
Association rights	Exclusive democracy	10	10	10	9	9	7
Freedom of expression	Exclusive democracy	10	10	10	8	7	6
Independent judiciary	Illiberal democracy	9	9	9	8	7	6
Civil rights	Illiberal democracy	9	10	9	8	8	8
Separation of powers	Delegative democracy	10	10	10	7	6	5
Abuse of office persecuted	Delegative democracy	8	8	8	8	8	7
Effective power to govern	Tutelary democracy	10	10	10	10	10	10
Democracy status		9.4	9.35	9.25	8.35	7.95	7.6
Democracy classification		Dem.	Dem.	Dem.	Dem.	Defect.	Defect.
Freedom House subcategory scores	Democratic defect	2006	2008	2010	2012	2014	2016
Electoral process (12)	Exclusive democracy	12	12	12	12	12	9
Political pluralism and participation (16)	Exclusive democracy	15	15	15	15	15	15
Associational and organization rights (12)	Exclusive democracy	12	12	12	12	12	11
Freedom of expression (16)	Exclusive democracy	16	16	16	15	15	13
Personal autonomy and individual rights (16)	Illiberal democracy	14	14	14	14	14	13
Rule of law (16)	Delegative democracy	13	13	12	11	11	10
Functioning of government (12)	Tutelary democracy	10	10	10	9	9	8

Note: Own compilation based on BTI, Freedom House, Croissant, “Analyse Defekter Demokratien”, and Merkel and Talshir, “Is Israel an Embedded Democracy?”

Legend: Dem. = democracy in consolidation, Defect. = defective democracy; The maximum number of points for each Freedom House subcategory is in parentheses.

Table 2. Hungary: a diffusely defective democracy.

Three dimensions	Five partial regimes	Ten criteria	Hungarian evidence	Democratic defect
Vertical legitimacy	Elections	Active suffrage	Voting rights for ethnic Hungarians abroad	Exclusive democracy
		Passive suffrage	-
		Free and fair elections	New electoral law systematically favours ruling party National Electoral Commission dominated by ruling party
		Elected officials	Reduced opportunities for direct democracy
	Political participation rights	Freedom of association	Campaign against NGOs
		Freedom of opinion, press & information	Government control of media
Horizontal accountability & rule of law	Civil rights	Individual protection of rights against state & private actors	Nepotism, corruption	Illiberal democracy
		Equal treatment by & equal access to courts	Discrimination against Roma Ethnically defined nation
	Horizontal accountability	Horizontal accountability	Limited parliamentary control over government Severely reduced judicial control over government Severely reduced independence of constitutional court	Delegative democracy
Effective government/agenda control	Effective government	Elected officials with real power	Institutionalized veto points to protect ruling party’s influence in the future	Democracy with reserved domains

Note: Own compilation based on Merkel et al. (Defekte Demokratie: Band 1; Defekte Demokratie: Band 2).