The Orbán Enigma
How a Former Liberal Turned Hungary into a Global Illiberal Laboratory
Exposes the inner workings of Orbán’s Hungary and assesses how his style of politics has affected states and electorates worldwide.
Description
How did a simple boy from the Hungarian countryside end up leading political life in his country for decades? How, as Prime Minister of a small Central European state, did he become one of the most influential illiberal rulers in the world? How and why did Hungary turn into a neo-authoritarian laboratory? And what geopolitical game is Viktor Orbán playing between continental alliances and global powers?
This book is a political biography of Orbán, but also offers first-hand historical analysis of Hungary post-1989. What started as an imperfect, albeit fully-fledged, democracy has been replaced by a new constitutional system. Orbán’s Hungary is a constantly radicalising electoral autocracy, with two intertwined role models: Putin’s Russia and Trump’s new America.
The Orbán Enigma explains how Hungarian democratic backsliding has become a hot-button issue for the Western political community; and charts how, over the course of fifteen years, the Orbán regime has ushered in illiberal rule while maintaining Hungary’s global connections via the EU and NATO. Stefano Bottoni’s timely study reminds us that democracy dies if it loses its spirit and civic commitment.
Author(s)
Stefano Bottoni is Associate Professor of History at the University of Florence. Between 2009 and 2019, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Research Center for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His scholarly production ranges from Soviet-type nationality policies to post-communist transition and democratic backsliding in Hungary.
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