Harry Litman - We Are Now A Backsliding Democracy
On May 29, 2010, Hungary was a liberal democracy with a free press, robust civil liberties, judicial independence, and a multi-party political system. That day, Viktor Orban, who previously had been Prime Minister, returned to power after a free and fair election driven by voter discontent over the incumbent government’s handling of the 2008 financial crisis. In his years out of power, Orban had established an iron grip on the Fidesz party, and had remade it in his image into a right-wing populist body.
In short order, Orban’s government, having commandeered the legal and political system, eviscerated judicial independence, installed a loyalist judiciary, attacked and undermined the free press, enacted election laws that hugely advantaged Fidesz and put an end to free and fair elections, labeled dissenters foreign agents and restricted their activities, and overhauled the constitution to centralize and consolidate power.
Propped up by these perversions of democratic rule, Orban remains in power 15 years later. The international community and European Union have relatedly condemned Hungary’s democratic decline, but to no avail. Orban’s moves have sufficiently weakened opposition parties that they lack the means to topple him within the new ground rules he has established, even though his popular support now sits under 30%. Large scale demonstrations in October called for an end to elements of Orban’s oppressive rule. But, of course, there’s an immense difference between protesting from the outside for a restoration of democracy and using the tools of a vibrant democracy to change the party in power.
Donald Trump, who returns to official power at noon today, has consistently expressed admiration for Orban as a “tough” and “smart” leader and a “strongman.” In his debate with Kamala Harris, he rebuffed Harris’s assertion that world leaders didn’t respect him by citing Orban, “one of the most respected men.”
https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/we-are-now-a-backsliding-democracy