Pichl, Maximilian --- "Constitution of false prophecies: the illiberal transformation of Hungary" [2019] ELECD 1162; in Alviar Garcia, Helena; Frankenberg, Gunter (eds), "Authoritarian Constitutionalism" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 240

Book Title: Authoritarian Constitutionalism

Editor(s): Alviar García, Helena; Frankenberg, Günter

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Constitution of false prophecies: the illiberal transformation of Hungary

Author(s): Pichl, Maximilian

Number of pages: 25

Abstract/Description:

Hungary is a laboratory for authoritarians in Europe. Since the election of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in 2010, the government has transformed the constitution and the state apparatuses in an illiberal way. The political sphere has been monopolised in the interest of the leading party and attacks against critical actors from civil society are common. The authoritarian transformation is linked to the constitution project of 2011/2012. The so-called national avowal represents an ethnic understanding of constitutionalism and offers the government a legitimizing vehicle for politics of exclusion towards constructed ‘foreigners’. The article tries to understand the constitution as a propaganda tool for the government; therefore the perspectives of critical theory are used to deconstruct the national avowal. The main reference point for the analysis is Leo Löwenthal and Norbert Guterman’s study False Prophets, in which they deal with authoritarian rhetoric.