Hungary: Between Democracy and Authoritarianism - Hardcover

Lendvai, Paul

3.95

21 ratings by Goodreads

9781849041966: Hungary: Between Democracy and Authoritarianism

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1849041962 ISBN 13: 9781849041966

Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 2012

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How has Hungary, a country once in the vanguard of political and economic reform under Communism, become a chilling example of the new threats confronting democracy in Central Europe? The return of Hungary's demons of the past - nationalism, ethnic hatred, deeply-rooted corruption and authoritarian tendencies - has engendered international concern. Since winning a two-thirds majority in parliament in the spring of 2010, the dynamic right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has embarked on a sweeping and ruthless concentration of power and has sought to reshape the state in his own image. A new constitution and a sweeping series of laws and decrees - radical changes in the judicial and electoral system and the dismantling of constitutional safeguards ensuring the autonomy of the executive branch and the freedom of the media - seem destined to ensure a long-term hegemony of the far right. Meanwhile a campaign of vituperative nationalist rhetoric and the granting of voting rights to 2.5 million ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries are bound to increase tensions in this volatile corner of Europe. Lendvai offers readers an unsparing and dispassionate account, based on his intimate personal knowledge of Hungary's major political figures and its political culture, of the turbulent events since the collapse of the Communist regime which affect not only Hungary, but also the political and economic stability of the Danube basin.

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Review:

'The case against Orb�n is set out with great passion in this convincing indictment of the most powerful political figure in the eastern EU ... This is gloves-off political writing at its best.' --The Financial Times

Paul Lendvai, the Hungarian writer with Budapest roots, sheds light upon the darkening internal affairs of the young Hungarian democracy. ... Lendvai provides indispensable help for our orientation and attitude towards the country and its representatives. --Die Zeit

'Paul Lendvai is a legend. No one knows Hungary better or is better equipped to navigate its political decent. Lendvai s thesis weaves the critical insights of an outsider with a native s fluency and understanding, all translated through a journalist s eye for detail and narrative, to portray the grim reality of a teetering democratic society.' --Frederick Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council and author of Berlin 1961

From the Author:

Paul Lendvai is a Hungarian-born Austrian journalist who worked as a correspondent for the Financial Times for more than two decades. His prize-winning memoir, 'Blacklisted: A Journalist's Life in Central Europe', boldly takes stock of the ethnic hatred, political turbulence, and murderous anti-Semitism of twentieth-century Central Europe.

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