Caesarean politics in Hungary and Poland

  • Robert Sata*
  • , Ireneusz Pawel Karolewski
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

We propose the new concept of Caesarean politics to explain democratic deconsolidation in Hungary and Poland. We argue the move towards illiberal democracy in both countries has been made possible by a shift towards Caesarean politics, in which radical changes are framed as “politics as usual”, while in fact these challenge the essence of liberal democracy. Focusing on the three pillars of Caesarean politics: (1) patronal politics, (2) state capture, and (3) identity politics, we show how both countries become cases of Caesarean politics, where, using discourses of “friends” and “enemies”, the leader coordinates vast patronal networks that capture the state.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)206-225
Number of pages20
JournalEast European Politics
Volume36
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Apr 2020

Keywords

  • Democratic consolidation
  • East-Central Europe
  • exclusionary identity
  • identity politics
  • patronal politics
  • state capture

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