The Hungarian Authoritarian Populism and Exceptional Governance Before and After the Outbreak of the Pandemic

 My paper (The Hungarian Authoritarian Populism and Exceptional Governance Before and After the Outbreak of the Pandemic) has been published in the volume edited by Jan Géryk and Petr Agha, Political Imagination and Utopian Energies in Central and Eastern Europe (Peter Lang, 2024).

A jog és a rendkívüli eszközökkel való kormányzás (ELTE Jogi Kari Könyvbemutató, 2024. december 18.)

 

A rendkívüli eszközökkel való kormányzás a válságok korában (ELTE ÁJK, Székfoglaló és ELTE Ígéretes kutatója előadások, 2024. november 28.)

 2024. november 28-án bemutatkoznak az ELTE Állam- és Jogtudományi Kar új egyetemi tanárai és Ígéretes kutatója. Ennek keretében az ELTE Ígéretes kutatójaként tartom meg A rendkívüli eszközökkel való kormányzás a válságok korában című előadásomat.

ELTE Ezüst Eötvös Emlékérem (2024. szeptember 9.)

 Az a megtiszteltetés ért, hogy 2024. szeptember 9-én ELTE Ezüst Eötvös Emlékérmet kaptam az ELTE Állam- és Jogtudományi Karától.

Antal Attila: A jog és a rendkívüli eszközökkel való kormányzás. Jog és politika a válságok korában (ELTE Eötvös Kiadó, 2024)

Az ELTE Eötvös Kiadó gondozásában megjelent legújabb kötetem, amely a Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal Posztdoktori Kiválósági Programja keretében az Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem Állam- és Jogtudományi Karán A rendkívüli jogrend a globális ökológiai és járványügyi válságok tükrében (NKFIH-azonosító: 139007) címmel végezett kutatásaimat foglalja össze.

A kötet elérhető az ELTE Eötvös Kiadónál és az ELTE Reader-en.

Jelen kötet a szerző Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal Posztdoktori Kiválósági Program keretében folytatott, A rendkívüli jogrend a globális ökológiai és járványügyi válságok tükrében című (NKFIH-azonosító: 139007) kutatása, valamint a Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Bolyai János Kutatási Ösztöndíj keretében készült.

Authoritarian Populism, Environmentalism and Exceptional Governance in Hungary (When Power Goes Green – The Politics of Ecological Emergency in the Shadow of Authoritarianism, 10 July 2024, Universität Hamburg)

I am participating at the When Power Goes Green – The Politics of Ecological Emergency in the Shadow of Authoritarianism workshop at 10th July 2024, organized by Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies “Futures of Sustainability” at Universität Hamburg. My presentation is about Authoritarian Populism, Environmentalism and Exceptional Governance in Hungary.

Extraordinary Governance Measures as Authoritarian Class Politics (No War but the Class War Conference, May 31 - June 2, 2024, New York)

I hold a lecture at No War but the Class War Historical Materialism and Institute for the Radical Imagination Conference No War but the Class War Historical Materialism and Institute for the Radical Imagination Conference, May 31 - June 2, 2024, New York.

Extraordinary Governance Measures as Authoritarian Class Politics

We have entered the era of overlapping crisis (polycrisis). The authoritarian populist right-wing has rapidly reborn in the field of authoritarian state and emergency governance, moreover the COVID-19 crisis gave a new rise this phenomenon. The failures of liberal democracy, which can be called “neo-weimarization”, opened the way of authoritarian right-wing populism and its class politics. The rise of authoritarian populism and the extraordinary governance measures (EGMs) of has fundamentally changed the relationship between law and politics. I will examine the impact of EGMs on democracy and the structure of social classes. The overlapping state of exception rise several dilemmas, since governing by EGMs is not in itself undemocratic, but if the executive power primarily performs its tasks in an extraordinary manner, then this has very serious social and political consequences and this also leaves its mark on democracy. My main claim is that authoritarian populism has found in the EGM the instrument of a new authoritarian class politics. At the same time, governments have shifted strongly in a kind of crisis management direction, which provides incredible opportunities to govern by EMSs, but also takes us incredibly far away from any kind of political, social normality. In examining the political economical practice of EGMs in Hungary, one of the most important directions is the impact of political governance on constitutionalism, the legal system, and the law itself. The Hungarian experience makes it clear that the authoritarian political leadership has used the EGMs to further build and strengthen the national capitalist class, while the social effects of the polycrisis have not been addressed.

This lecture was prepared within the postdoc project “The State of Emergency in the Era of Global Ecological and Pandemic Crisis” financed by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Postdoctoral Excellence Program of Hungary, ID-number: 139007, hosting institution: ELTE Faculty of Law.

A rendkívüli eszközökkel való kormányzás közpolitikai hatásai (MPTT Vánforgyűlés, 2024. május 16-17.)

 Részt vettem 2024. május 16-17. között a Magyar Politikatudományi Társaság XXIX. Vándorgyűlésén Pécsett. Az előadás címe: A rendkívüli eszközökkel való kormányzás közpolitikai hatásai.

A kivételes kormányzás és a demokrácia a válságok korszakában – Kivételes kormányzás a 2010 utáni Magyarországon (ELTE Eötvös Kiadó, 2024)

Megjelent a legújabb egyetemi jegyzetem "A kivételes kormányzás és a demokrácia a válságok korszakában – Kivételes kormányzás a 2010 utáni Magyarországon" címmel az ELTE Eötvös Kiadó gondozásában.

A globális ökológiai és klímaválsággal elértünk a kivételes állapot korszakába, ennek visszavonhatatlan bizonyítéka a Covid19-járvány és a nyomában járó egészségügyi, politikai, gazdasági és társadalmi válságkomplexum. Jelen kötet fő célja, hogy eligazodást nyújtson a hazai társadalomtudományi (különösen a jogász- és a politikatudományi) képzésben részt vevő hallgatók számára a kivételes kormányzás elméletét és empirikus tapasztalatait illetően. A kötet átfogó jelleggel kívánja megragadni a kivételes állapot és a globális válságok kapcsolatát, amelynek eddigi legösszetettebb megnyilvánulását, a koronavírus okozta válságot egyfajta vizsgálandó esettanulmánynak tekinti. Mivel jelentős elméleti anyagot fog át, ezért a jegyzet alkalmas a rendkívüli jog- és politikai renddel, a kivételes eszközökkel való kormányzás alapvető irodalmainak megismerésére, továbbá a kivételes kormányzás kortárs empirikus tapasztalatainak megbeszéléseken, vitákon keresztül történő feldolgozására. A téma komplex, jog- és alkotmányelméleti, valamint politikatudományi megközelítése olyan látásmódot biztosít, amelyre az interdiszciplináris megközelítésmódra támaszkodó jogász- és politológushallgatóknak mindenképpen szüksége lehet.

Jelen kötet a Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Bolyai János Kutatási Ösztöndíj keretében készült.

Law and Democracy under the Pressure of Extraordinary Governance Measures (MPSA, 4 April 2024)

I had a lecture at 81st Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference, April 4-7, 2024, Chicago, IL.

Law and Democracy under the Pressure of Extraordinary Governance Measures. The Extraordinary Governance Measures in Hungary

The authoritarian populist right-wing has rapidly reborn in the field of authoritarian state and emergency governance, moreover the COVID-19 crisis gave a new rise this phenomenon mainly at the expense of civil society. The failures of liberal democracy opened the way of authoritarian populist right-wing populism in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which on the one hand remained integrated into the neoliberal capitalism and on the other hand dismantled the legal basis of liberal constitutionalism. Investigating the authoritarian populist regime in Hungary, it has been argued that Hungarian authoritarian populism established this politics from the migration crisis of 2015 on the permanent state of exception and extraordinary governance measures (EGMs). The COVID-19 crisis and the war offered a new opportunity to maintain and extend the emergency measures. Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán found the way to capitalize the pandemic crisis and introduced the overlapping exceptional measures. Relying on the political theoretical and legal concept of exceptional governance, it has been argued and analysed in this paper that the new forms of authoritarianism in Hungary is based on the extraordinary measures.

This lecture was prepared within the postdoc project “The State of Emergency in the Era of Global Ecological and Pandemic Crisis” financed by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Postdoctoral Excellence Program of Hungary, ID-number: 139007, hosting institution: ELTE Faculty of Law.

Exceptional Governance Measure in the Era of Climate and Ecological Crisis (FFLCH–University of São Paulo Cultura e Extensão Universitária Summer School March 4-7, 2024)

I had a course with the title "Exceptional Governance Measure in the Era of Climate and Ecological Crisis" at Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras (FFCL) at University of São Paulo (USP)

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Description of the Course

In times of emergency, crises, ecological, public health and social crises (polycrisis) (Henig–Knight, 2023), the strengthening of executive power is therefore a natural phenomenon, both historically and politically, as is the (constitutional) desire of legal and political systems and communities to limit the use of extraordinary measures of governance. It follows that, in modern constitutional systems, the temporary suspension of normality, of the constitutional normal state, cannot in principle be considered undemocratic, since the purpose of this drastic step is precisely to protect the status quo. In any objective emergency (especially in the case of a pandemic that is in many respects uncertain and gives rise to doubts), the question of whether governance by extraordinary means is democratic is a very difficult one. Even more so since there can be legitimate disagreements between societies and within societies about the balance between civil liberties and public health. I think that COVID-19 (and the embedding of emergency models in the ideological and historical debates of the 20th century and beyond) has shown that we need to fundamentally rethink the paradigm of exceptional governance and that we can by no means rely on absolutes. In other words, the concentration of executive power is not anti-democratic in principle, but it can easily become so without active (and of course extraordinary compared to the normal state of affairs) controls.

In the framework of the course, a huge emphasize will be put on the Central Eastern European (especially Hungarian) experiences of extraordinary governance. For almost a decade, Hungary has had at least one (sometimes two) extraordinary measure in force at the same time and has achieved continuous exceptional government. All this raises several dilemmas, since (as we have seen) governing by extraordinary means is not in itself undemocratic, but if the executive power primarily performs its tasks in an extraordinary manner, then this has very serious social and political consequences and this also leaves its mark on democracy.

The course will deal with the era of legal and political exceptionalism and its manifestations in the framework of polycrisis. The global ecological and climate crisis has brought us to an era of exceptionalism, as irrevocably demonstrated by COVID-19 and the complex of health, political, economic and social crises that followed. As the pandemic has made the exceptional order more visible than ever before in our daily lives, a complex social science explanation and conclusions must be drawn. The aim of the course is to describe and capture exceptionalism in legal and policy theory and to contribute to the national academic discourse on the subject.

This courese was prepared within the postdoc project “The State of Emergency in the Era of Global Ecological and Pandemic Crisis” financed by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Postdoctoral Excellence Program of Hungary, ID-number: 139007, hosting institution: ELTE Faculty of Law.