Civic Values and the Vulnerability of an Illiberal Political Order: The Case of Hungary

• In Event: Civic and Uncivic Values in Hungary: Values Transformation, Politics, and Religion

Abstract

The values enumerated in the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights – respect for the harm principle (already enshrined in the Code of Hammurabi, promulgated in 1755-1750 BCE), individual rights including freedom of speech and individuals’ right to education and to work, the rule of law, religious toleration, and equality – were all anticipated in Immanuel Kant’s Perpetual Peace, first published in 1795. Post-communist Hungary, like post-communist Poland, although to a greater extent than its near-neighbor to the north, has experienced dramatic backsliding in terms of democracy-building. During the years 1990-2010, there were efforts to put democratic institutions, laws, and procedures in place. In fact, during the years that socialist Gyula Horn served as Prime Minister (1994-98), Hungary was widely considered to be making good progress toward a stable liberal democracy. Even Viktor Orbán’s first term as Prime Minister (1998-2002) did not lead to any consensus that democracy in Hungary was endangered. But after Orbán returned to the Prime Minister’s office in 2010, Hungary’s political trajectory shifted, as Orbán began dismantling democratic institutions, starting with the Constitutional Court and the media. Since then, Orbán also introduced a definition of marriage, specifically to exclude same-sex couples, chiseled down the number of religious organizations allowed to operate in the country, aligned himself with the conservative wings of the country’s three main Churches, forced Central European University to leave Hungary, terminated legal recognition of gender change, and corrupted both the economy and the political system itself. In July 2014, he told an audience in Romania that he was building an illiberal system in Hungary and specifically embraced a posture of active intolerance of minorities whether ethnic or sexual. Under his increasingly autocratic rule, not one of the six core civic values has been respected.

Author

• Sabrina Petra Ramet, Norwegian U of Science & Technology (Norway)