Falling in with the wrong crowd: linkage in the age of populism

ABSTRACT

The article examines the role of linkage in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, where liberal democratic institutions and practices have eroded since 2010. Levitsky and Way (2010, Competitive authoritarianism: hybrid regimes after the Cold War, New York: Cambridge University Press) provided a definition of linkage, and theorized an important role for these links in the democratization process. However, there has been less examination of how linkages affect the quality of existing democracies. Looking at the case of Hungary, I formulate hypotheses about the role of linkage and maintaining the quality of democracy. I propose that links that may encourage democratization have proven too weak to sustain democratic quality in the face of illiberal, populist challenges. I also argue that new linkage patterns have been forming with tend to degrade democratic quality, specifically between populist parties in Hungary and those in other parts of Europe; and between Hungarian parties and various institutions, including parties and the state, in Russia. The paper hopes to use the linkage model to inform developments in the literature on democratic regression and democratic quality.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article examine le rôle du linkage dans la Hongrie de Viktor Orban, où les institutions et les pratiques libérales démocratiques se sont dégradées depuis 2010. Levitsky et Way (2010, Competitive authoritarianism: hybrid regimes after the Cold War, New York: Cambridge University Press) ont proposé une définition du linkage, et théorisé un rôle important pour cette densité des liens dans le processus de démocratisation. Cependant, la recherche s’est moins intéressée à la manière dont le linkage affecte la qualité des démocraties existantes. En prenant le cas de la Hongrie, je formule des hypothèses concernant le rôle du linkage et la préservation de la qualité de la démocratie. J’avance que les liens qui pourraient encourager la démocratisation se sont révélés trop faibles pour préserver la qualité démocratique face aux défis antilibéraux et populistes. Je soutiens aussi que les nouveaux modèles de linkage se sont formés avec une tendance à détériorer la qualité démocratique, en particulier entre les partis populistes en Hongrie et dans d’autres contrées européennes ; et entre les partis hongrois et diverses institutions, y compris les partis et l’État, en Russie. Cet article se donne pour objectif d’utiliser le modèle du linkage pour orienter les développements de la littérature sur le recul démocratique et la qualité démocratique.

KEYWORDS:

• democratic quality
• democratization
• Hungary
• populism
• linkage

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr Maria Koinova and Dr Peter Burnell for the generous provision of their time and editorial assistance. I would also like to thank Dr Louise Thompson for publishing a blogpost based on this article in the Political Studies Association blog in 2016.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ben Margulies is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Warwick. American by birth, he undertook postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics and the University of Essex. His thesis focused on liberal political parties. He has published in Comparative European Politics, the Australian Journal of Political Science and the Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica. He is a frequent commentator on European party politics.

Notes

1. The first five dimensions relate to democratic procedure; freedom and equality are seen as key to democratic content; responsiveness is the measure of the outcome.

2. In a nominal coalition with the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP).