Két kritikus fordulópont: A populista választási autokrácia előzményei és megszilárdulása Magyarországon

This study examines the transformation of Hungary’s post-1989 political system, aiming to capture the rise and operation of the Orbán regime through a synthesis of regime classification approaches and populism research. By integrating the polity and politics-level aspects of political contestation, our approach diverges from the mainstream political science perspective (2010) and constitutionallegal approaches (2012/13), identifying two distinct critical junctures. The first is the crisis of liberal democracy in the second half of the 2000s, and the second is the rise of the Orbán regime as a populist electoral autocracy (PEA) in the mid-2010s. The 2018 general elections mark the onset of the Orbán regime’s autocratic consolidation. For broader comparative political science, the Hungarian case illustrates how populist polarization precedes and surpasses autocratization in intensity, later intertwining with it to facilitate an autocratic transition.