Political Apathy as Autocratization Strategy: Evidence from Hungary

• In Event: Understanding Democratic Backsliding through Text-as-Data Analysis

Abstract

How do early-stage autocratizers limit the political opposition's ability to contest and win elections? Scholars have long emphasized autocratizers’ manipulation of electoral processes, capture of the courts and state resources (including media outlets), harassment of opposition candidates, and erosion of independent civil society. The inculcation of political apathy in the electorate is, thus far, unarticulated as an aspect of autocratization. I argue that in pre-election periods, inculcating apathy in opposition sympathists is especially vital; whereas institutional tinkering serves as a tangible public reminder of democratic erosion, apathy engineering can slip ‘under the radar’ as a diffuse and relatively intangible process. This article first develops a conceptual framework for understanding apathy—a demobilizing emotion that discourages political action—as a tool of power consolidation in fledgling autocracies. It then demonstrates how propagation of apathy features as a prominent campaign strategy in a contested election an early-stage autocrat is afraid to lose. This conceptual development relies on the content analysis of more than 500 Facebook ad campaigns fielded by Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party during the 2021 Hungarian opposition primary and in the lead up to the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election.

Author

• Laura Jakli, Harvard University