A few weeks ago, I received the letter pictured above from Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán in my mailbox. “Dear citizen! I write to you today because Hungary has a parliamentary election next …
Can Authoritarian Leaders Appropriate Democratic Interventions?
In 2020 Alexander Lukashenko “won” yet another term in what is widely considered an unfree election. Domestic protests quickly followed and were repressed in a harsh fashion by the regime. Concurrent …
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Viktor Orbán’s Latest Erosion of Democracy: Rhetorical Advances Towards Autocracy
Many political scientists assert that Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán is an autocrat and point to Hungary as a prime example of democratic erosion. Orbán’s article “Samizdat 16” published on …
Hungary’s Democratic Decline
COVID-19 has plagued the world over the past year and a half. The pandemic caused countries to impose border closures and the utilization of mass digital surveillance, moves that may have once been …
Orbán and His War Against Academic Freedom
Academic freedom is a basic concept as well as a guiding principle in higher education. However, democratic governments, such as in Hungary, have taken a number of punitive moves against academics and …
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Orbán’s “Will of the Nation” Does Not Include LGBTQ+ Citizens
Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán has passed a series of measures effectively curtailing the civil liberties of the country’s LGBTQ+ citizens. A well-established populist, Orbán seeks …
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A Game of Tug of War Over Democracy
The European Union is failing to maintain democracy in their member states. Not only are they failing to threaten these countries into cooperating, they may also be creating an environment …
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Orban’s COVID Authoritarianism
Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban was given immense power to rule by decree during the initial outbreak of COVID-19, and while the power to rule by decree has been repealed, Orban still retains …