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Brexit has been a major crisis facing the European integration process. The paper examines how Brexit was framed and exploited by two EU member state governments, Czechia and Hungary. We conceptualize Brexit as a "distant crisis" for these two countries: although it is likely to have significant impacts, these are uncertain and not immediate. Building on the crisis-framing literature, we apply frame analysis to examine governmental rhetoric and find that both governments have instrumentalized Brexit for internal purposes by pragmatically adapting their discursive positions on it to fit their political calculus on both domestic and European issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All of the East-Central European countries have been diverging from the European Union (EU) mainstream in recent years, but Hungary most of all. This paper offers a country study of Hungary, focusing on both internal and external political transformations and on the “de-democratization” and “de-Europeanization” process as a serious divergence from mainstream EU developments due to the socio-economic and political crises of the past quarter-century. Hungary has become a “defective” or “Potemkin” democracy: since the 2010 elections the formal institutions of democracy have been nothing more than a façade for nondemocratic, authoritarian rule. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on the theory of transaction cost economics, the paper argues that by vertically organizing political exchange, populist regimes reduce market-type political transaction costs—bargaining, enforcement and information costs—of democracy. However, management-type political transaction costs—organizational costs, partly stemming from corruption—rise as populists in power leverage government control through hierarchically organized clienteles. Transaction cost economics suggest that a shift from democratic towards authoritarian populist regimes occurs when formal and informal political institutions prove unable to maintain horizontal political exchange, and demand for increased government discretion grows. This is demonstrated on Viktor Orbán's authoritarian populist regime in Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue brings together scholars of media, sociology, and political science to examine the discursive opportunities for radical-right populist politics across Eastern Europe. The articles concentrate on such soft factors as the role of media, the radicalization of public discourse, and the communication repertoires of radical-right populist actors across the region. The contributions employ both established and innovative methodological approaches to examine favorable or disadvantageous discursive conditions for radical-right populist politics—including thematic social media analysis; framing analysis; qualitative content analysis; mixed-methods; and social network analysis. They map out these developments across the region, focusing on Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Romania, as well as Estonia and Slovenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the discursive opportunities for radical-right populist politics in Hungary and Romania. We argue that it is important to assess whether the discursive activities of radical-right media are reflected and included in the chains of discussion in the public sphere. The involvement and visibility of radical-right media in news coverage is considered a cue for their acceptance as legitimate actors in the wider media ecosystem, even when other media may not accept their interpretations. Our findings tell two different stories in the compared countries. In Hungary, we note that radical-right media are to a certain degree incorporated into the wider media networks, while in Romania, radical-right media are observed to be in isolated positions in both of the media networks we examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how two processes of externalization—deeper integration into European institutions, and the extension of citizenship and voting rights offered by neighboring kin-states—impact national minority politics using the critical case of the ethnic Hungarian political community in Romania. It finds that external citizenship and voting rights may help strengthen ethnic political identity, but also reorients resources away from minority political projects toward the kin-state and encourages intra-minority stratification. Access to European political spaces offers additional arenas through which minority political actors can make claims and gain allies, but is of limited use as a mobilizational resource. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the implications of kin-citizenship policies on trans-border minority claim-making. To demonstrate the implications of kin-citizenship for minority claim-making strategies, the article investigates how Hungary’s introduction of extraterritorial citizenship and voting rights has affected the claim-making potential of Hungarian minority parties in the neighboring countries. The article argues that, contrary to existing theories, increased kin-state activism through extraterritorial citizenship does not necessarily lead to the radicalization of minorities, but it does compromise the mobilization potential and claim-making strategy of trans-border political actors in their home-states. The article also shows that increased kin-state activism does not necessarily increase interstate and interethnic tension. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The institutionalization of party politics is supposed to contribute to the consolidation of democracies. Analysis of Hungary's democratic backsliding shows, however, that this is not necessarily the case. This article demonstrates that the combination of populist party strategies, polarized party relations, and the inertia of the party system constitutes a significant challenge (here labeled "populist polarization") to the consolidation of liberal democracy. After considering the applicability of structuralist and transitologist frameworks to the political dynamics in Hungary, the article differentiates the notion of populist polarization from similar concepts and argues that populist polarization in the region poses a more acute danger to high-quality democracy than the much-feared under-institutionalized and fragmented configurations of party politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fieldwork studies in Yugoslavia and Hungary revealed different forms and limitations of "market socialism" in the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes to family policy in Poland, Hungary, and Romania since they joined the European Union reveal a rich web of domestic and international influences that has benefited working middle-class families, sometimes at the expense of the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excerpts are presented from documents which were filed in 1989 in the countries of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania and which relate to the collapse of communist regimes.

The article focuses on the role of intermediary companies in the gas industry and the impact of Russian politics on markets that supply energy-dependent states in Europe. Russia began aggressively promoting its pipeline projects after the European Union (EU) proposed the Nabucco pipeline to ensure the security of energy supplies after the energy crises in 2006 and 2007. Corruption and weak infrastructures in Armenia, Ukraine, and Hungary have hindered EU projects. Competition among the state, corporate, and private interests in the Russian energy sector and the energy policy in the former Soviet region is discussed. Gas traders or "gazotreideri" and barter deals, the post-Soviet gas trade system, and the influence of intermediary gas companies in Lithuania are mentioned.

Examines the success of democratic transformations in Hungary. Role of informal contacts between intellectuals and technocrats on the country's democratization; Mechanism for change; Impact of the publication of the book 'Bibó Memorial Book' on intellectuals.

Deals with a study that discussed two important contemporary processes, democratization and regional integration, to examine the democratic consolidation in Hungary following its negotiated transition from communism in the late 1980s. Role of parliament in the integration of a country in the European Union (EU); Political structures that link Hungary and EU; Influence of the EU on the institutionalization of democratic practices in Hungary.

Cites the role of environmental activism to the democratization of Hungary. Description on environmentalism under communism in the country; Discussion on the catalyst for the rise of environmental activism; Conclusion.