In the land of inefficacy: Talking about Hungarian approaches to participation

This chapter shows that inactivity, inefficacy, occasional outbursts of political protests, and overall political dissatisfaction can exist parallel to each other. Inactivity and distrust seem to be closely related to the sense of broken promises of politicians, lack of accountability, lack of appropriate information, various cultural characteristics, and fear. The phenomenon and concept of inactivity was the most fundamental common ground across the discussions of groups and strategies. The link between the negative evaluation of all possible types of political participation and the ensuing political inactivity was apparent to many participants. Many underlying arguments appeared about the possible reasons behind inactivity: respondents blamed the manipulative political system, other citizens’ attitudes, the lack of efficacy of strategies, the fear from retaliations, and the lack of resources to participate. The focus groups revealed that politics is conceptualised in Hungary by the citizens as a world in which agency is mainly assigned to elite actors.