Why Hungary Matters
Six big-picture conclusions from Orbán’s smashing defeat – and what it all means for the transnational struggle against rightwing authoritarianism.
The most important one: Nothing about rightwing authoritarianism is inevitable.
My new piece:
https://steady.page/en/democracyamericana/posts/84239935-e835-46fe-b97a-24e551c1658c
In this piece, I discuss:
- Why we need to remember, amidst all the well-earned celebration, that this struggle is far from over
- What we have learned about the nature and inner dynamics of regimes that are best described as forms of competitive authoritarianism
Also:
- Why the Right has been so obsessed with Orbán
- What that transnational fixation on Orbán can tell us about the world-historic stakes in this broader struggle over democracy
- And why we must not perpetuate rightwing assertions of liberal democracy’s supposedly inevitable fall.
It is a difficult challenge to strike the right balance between articulating clearly that liberal democracy is under acute threat – and needlessly perpetuating the Far Right’s assertions of strength and dominance.
As Viktor Orbán found out on Sunday: Nothing about these people is inevitable.
@tzimmer_history One day the media will call it out for what it is : wrongwing.
It is foundationally anti-society.
Phil Wolff
Thomas Zimmer
Neil Moffatt