CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Hellyer, Gabor Paul |
|---|---|
| Title | Disunited Elites, Legitimacy Politics,and Constitutional Change: An Agency-Centred Account of Democratic Deconsolidation in Hungary |
| Summary | Why does Hungary, a former frontrunner of postcommunist democratic consolidation, now have a one-sided constitution which represents disunity over the basic values and institutions of the political system? Utilizing an elite theory perspective combined with Herbert Kitschelt's refined approach to causality, this study argues that the agency of political elites, rather than structural factors, has been central to the seemingly anomalous disappointment of consolidation expectations. Rather than seeing the current regime outcome as inevitable, it is argued here that elite disunity followed a traceable process of development. First, the role of agency in frustrating the centripetal tendency of two-party competition is demonstrated through analysis of the party system and cleavage structure of Hungarian politics. Subsequently, the inauguration of questioning the right of opponents to participate in the democratic game as a routine feature of competition, which I term legitimacy politics, is located in the discursive strategy of the Fidesz-led right bloc in the 1998-2002 period. Against analyses that place all the explanatory burden on the political crisis of 2006, the argument here stresses the essential continuity between the right's stance at the start of the millennium and in the 2011 Constitution. Through an analysis of the right's combination of anti-communism and nationalism, it is argued that the new constitution represents a project of political messianism in which citizens' interest is likely to be limited. |
| Supervisor | Dimitrijević, Nenad |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/hellyer_gabor.pdf |
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