DEMOCRACY WATCHHow Viktor Orbán’s Hungary Eroded the Rule of Law and Free Markets
Many on the right see Viktor Orbán’s Hungary as a model. In fact, far from being a model, Orbán’s Hungary is a cautionary tale of what results from an unrestrained executive with strongly centralized power, crony capitalism, and the systematic dismantling of the rule of law.
“Checks and balances is a US invention that for some reason of intellectual mediocrity Europe decided to adopt.”
Viktor Orbán, 20141
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
James Madison, Federalist no. 472
Some US conservatives see Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Hungary as a model for America’s future. In reality, Orbán’s crude majoritarianism has undermined the rule of law and media freedom in Hungary to take control of the economy and funnel resources to loyal oligarchs. The dismantling of institutional constraints on state power has gone further than in other modern democracies, and the results have consistently disappointed, even in areas where the government claims achievements such as strengthening the economy or increasing fertility rates. Far from being a model, Orbán’s Hungary is a cautionary tale of what results from an unrestrained executive with strongly centralized power, crony capitalism, and the systematic dismantling of the rule of law.
Introduction
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been called “one of the great moral leaders in this world” by Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon.3 Praising Orbán from Hungary in 2022, political commentator Tucker Carlson declared: “If you care about Western civilization … you should know what is happening here right now.”4 Meanwhile, the postliberal theorist Patrick Deneen thinks that Hungary offers “a model”—one in which “the state and the political order can be oriented to the positive promotion of conservative policies.”5
Like many other national conservatives, these figures portray Orbán’s Hungary as a bastion of conservative values in Europe. They often describe it as a country where a self-confident, right-wing government has defeated the woke left, repeatedly been reelected by huge majorities, and changed institutions to promote conservative ideals.
Part of Orbán’s appeal stems from a genuine and arguably reasonable sentiment shared by many Hungarians and others in Central and Eastern Europe: The European Union can be a heavy-handed, distant bureaucracy that constantly imposes rules and values from above. Orbán’s defiance of what some see as EU overreach or bullying feeds into his image as a defender of national sovereignty.
