CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Gessler, Theresa Elena |
|---|---|
| Title | NGOs and the public sphere as targets of illiberal democracy in contemporary Hungary |
| Summary | Democratic theory suggests civil society promotes democracy through instilling cooperation among citizens and generating a critical public sphere. Ironically, Hungarian civil society has itself become a target of undemocratic tendencies as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán considers NGOs as major obstacle to the construction of an ‘illiberal democracy’. At the core of the conflict are several civil-rights NGOs, the beneficiaries of the Norwegian Civil Fund. Through a series of stigmatizing statements and legal proceedings, they have been attacked both in their institutional base and public legitimacy. This thesis unravels the role of NGOs and the public sphere during de-democratization by investigating the strategic choices of NGOs involved in the conflict. Building on theories of civil society-state relations and ‘managed civil societies’, I show how the political, legal and financial environment in Hungary effectively discourages public sphere activities. This leads to a differential treatment of NGOs according to suspected political alignment. Through a thematic analysis of expert-interviews with NGO leaders, I expose four different strategies (ignoring, shifting, embracing and exploding) which underlie NGOs’ reactions and which shape their conceptions of civil society. Though NGOs vary considerably in their engagement with the conflict, most do not manage to supersede their established organizational culture. Precisely in a situation where civil society’s voice is most needed, many NGOs prioritize organizational survival and civil society’s self-organization function over upholding a critical public sphere. Ultimately, NGOs are not better equipped to control political actors than institutional checks as NGOs also depend on institutions for their organizational existence. |
| Supervisor | Sgier, Lea |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/gessler_theresa.pdf |
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