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A popular explanation for the rise of (authoritarian) populism nowadays draws on individuals’ feelings of being left behind. One of the reasons why people may feel that way is insufficient access to basic services. Relying on ESS data collected during the Covid-19 pandemic and data about healthcare institutions acquired from Open Street Maps, our study investigates how access to healthcare services impacts the support for authoritarian populists in three countries – Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary. The results of this study provide useful insights that further deepen our understanding of the influence of spatial context on political preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has put forward a new indicator based on the "ABC‐model" of attitudes designed to capture individual‐level Euroscepticism. We constructed a composite anti‐EU score based on affective, behavioural and cognitive sub‐indices. The study analyses data from a representative, countrywide Hungarian public opinion research. Looking for the drivers of anti‐EU attitudes, we took an integrative approach linking various theories of voting behaviour, Euroscepticism and populism studies. Our research showed that subjective well‐being significantly reduces anti‐EU attitudes. We found some empirical support for the "left behind thesis" in the Hungarian context, as severe economic grievances and fear of losing social status explained anti‐EU attitudes. Authoritarian traits turned out to be a major driver of Euroscepticism in Hungary. We proved that cosmopolitan values reduce affective and cognitive anti‐EU attitudes, but foreign experience and some international ties significantly correlated with anti‐EU stance. We confirmed that being a supporter of the governing Fidesz party and sharing culturally right‐wing political views significantly increase anti‐EU attitudes. We also revealed that partisanship's effect is strengthened by affective polarization and political interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to test the mechanism of autocratic populism (term which will be used as a synonym for illiberal democracy) in Hungary and Romania. A mechanism could help to better explain the phenomenon of populism across different spatiotemporal settings in which it occurs, therefore it is suitable for a common understanding of populism. I am going to use a minimal definition of liberal democracy as well as authoritarian populism and compare Romania and Hungary along three major components of the mechanism: constitutionalism (division of powers), the cultural construction of "the people" and the different conditions of the emergence of a charismatic personality. Investigating political processes will show why authoritarian populism or illiberal democracy has gained prominence in Hungary but has failed in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on the premise that social systems are justified via the discursive use of modal statements (i.e. sentences in which actors delineate that which is possible, impossible, inevitable or contingent) and their associated rationales. Within authoritarian states such modal discourse usually reflects a relatively coherent 'modality of permission'. However, when the citizens of such states unite to overthrow their totalitarian leaders, their activities are typically justified in terms of two mutually inconsistent discursive forms: a 'modality of achievement' (based on market justice among competitors) vs a 'modality of necessity' (based on social justice for the masses). These three discursive modalities have theoretical roots in Simmel's forms of sociation, and can be differentiated using content analysis. In an analysis of editorials during Hungary's first seven years of post-Soviet democratization, evidence is found of a steady increase during these years in mentions of Hungarians' opportunities being based on economic circumstances as well as in mentions of their responsibilities being grounded in political circumstances. This latter finding suggests that as late as 1997, Hungarian political discourse was heading toward a modality of necessity, more like the predominant political modality in Western Europe than the achievement modality that characterizes political discourse in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Code of ethics of Hungarian librarians consisting of 10 chapters was issued in January 2006. The Code laid down that the librarian should be an authoritative person who is honest, reliable, works according to professional standards, and whose professional competence is indisputable. The author draws a parallel between the modern library and the authoritative places of the Middle Ages (the chaplainship issuing authoritative charters), in the sense that the acceptance of their activity relied on two premises, i.e. professional knowledge and public confidence. These two premises are valid for today's librarian as well, this is why the author reconsiders the code's content from the point of the ethical category of authoritativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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