Political tolerance in Eastern and Western Europe: Social and psychological roots

According to Sullivan et al.’s (Sullivan et al. 1979, 53-55, Sullivan et al. 1985) theory, social and\ud psychological factors play different roles in political tolerance. Target-group selection is shaped by\ud socio-demographic characteristics, since in this way people try to adjust themselves to their social\ud environment. On the other side, the degree of tolerance is a function of personality and other\ud psychological factors.\ud The paper examines whether the causal model proposed by Sullivan and his co-workers is able to\ud account for individual differences in the degree of political intolerance in Eastern and Western Europe.\ud The main emphasis is on their hypothesis about different effects of socio-economic and psychological\ud variables. The research is based on World Values Survey data, which include the so called ‘least liked’\ud method to operationalize political tolerance. The findings indicate that psychological factors play an\ud important role in the choice of target group, and not only in determining the degree of intolerance,\ud contrary to Sullivan et al., hypothesis. Socio-economic status variables displayed rather complex\ud pattern of influence on political tolerance. In general, the findings suggest that intolerance of different\ud groups is not uniformly related to social and psychological explanatory variables. Not only intolerance\ud is pluralistic, but the mechanisms behind intolerance seem to be pluralistic too

Five views: Is populism really a threat to democracy?

Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 US presidential election, the UK's decision to leave the EU, and the rise of anti-establishment parties across Europe have prompted discussions over the role of 'populism' in modern politics. But is populism really a threat to democracy or is the term simply used by mainstream politicians to dismiss the legitimate concerns of citizens? We asked five academics for their views

Orbán’s great power politics

Hungary’s parliamentary election on 3 April is set to provide the biggest challenge to Viktor Orbán’s hold on power since he became Prime Minister in 2010. Zsolt Enyedi reflects on Orbán’s recent ‘state of the nation’ speech, which kicked off the 2022 election campaign and shed light on how the Prime Minister views Hungary’s position within Europe and the world

Concept and Varieties of Illiberalism

This article discusses various conceptualizations of illiberalism and adopts a definition that equates the concept with the negation of three liberal democratic principles: limited power, a neutral state, and an open society. The second part of the article explores the implications of this definitional strategy for empirical research, describes the relationship between populism, authoritarianism, and illiberalism, and identifies nine distinct routes to illiberalism: authoritarian, traditionalist, religious, libertarian, nativist-nationalist, populist, paternalist, materialist-technocratic, and left-wing

Paternalist populism and illiberal elitism in Central Europe

Through the analysis of the ideology of two Hungarian parties typically considered as populist, this paper investigates how elitism can be integrated into an overall populist appeal. The two parties, Fidesz and Jobbik, exhibit features of paternalist populism and illiberal elitism while offering different responses to the challenges typically confronted by authoritarian populist movements. With regard to Jobbik, the paper uncovers the existence of three distinct ideologies: right-wing populist; ultra-nationalist; and traditionalist and ‘meta-nationalist.’ The paper directs attention to the layered nature of partisan ideological discourses and assesses the relevance of the analysed model for Eastern and Central Europe.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569317.2016.110540

ANTI-JEWISH PREJUDICE IN CONTEMPORARY HUNGARY: A SOCIOPSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSAL MODEL

Predictions from three general approaches to prejudice-personality, social learning and group-conflict-have been examined on a sample of Hungarian youth and their parents. The sample consisted of 400 randomly selected college students and their parents from two Hungarian cities (total N=800). The questionaire included, among others, an antisemitism scale, authoritarianism scale, and socio-demographic variables. Socio-psychological causal model was constructed using univariate recursive regression graph methodology. The results indicated that students' antisemitism is directly related only to personality (authoritarianism) and to parents' antisemitism. Students' authoritarianism is related to parents' authoritarianism and family socio-economic status (as indicated by parents' income and education). Parents' antisemitism is related to their own authoritarian tendencies and income, while parents' authoritarianism is primarily related to their educational background. It is concluded that the results primarily support personality approach to prejudice as represented by Adorno et al.' work (1950), and socialization approach. Group-conflict approach received ambiguous suport in the same way as predictions from this approach concerning individual differences in prejudice are ambiguous

What explains the destabilisation of the German party system?

The German party system has become increasingly fragmented in recent decades, following years of relative stability. Drawing on a new book, Fernando Casal Bértoa and Zsolt Enyedi illustrate the factors that have driven this process of destabilisation

Understanding the rise of the populist establishment

Studies of populism have traditionally focused on the politics of opposition, such as protest movements and the campaigns of smaller parties. But as Zsolt Enyedi notes, recent election results have demonstrated that populist parties cannot only win power, but also show a surprising level of resilience when they enter government. He argues that populism can no longer be regarded simply as a symptom of the dysfunction of institutions: populists need to be appreciated as institution builders