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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDemocratic transitions, while they generate hope among much of the population, are also delicate, slow, and frustration-prone processes. Post-Orb\u00e1n Hungary is and will be all of that. The crowds dancing in front of the Hungarian Parliament after Magyar\u2019s victory recalled those who danced atop the Berlin Wall in 1989, and on Buenos Aires\u2019 Avenida 9 de Julio in 1983. However, those were cases of political transitions from authoritarian regimes to democratic ones. Hungary\u2019s situation is different, and we may be facing a new type of democratization process. It is not about the end of authoritarianism, but about the end of the \u201cde-liberalization\u201d of democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What defined Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government as non-democratic was the enactment, since 2011, of sweeping constitutional reforms that entrenched conservative values, strengthened political control over the judiciary, altered electoral procedures, centralized power, and undermined human rights. The erosion of the rule of law, the dismantling of checks and balances, and the \u201ccolonization\u201d of civic institutions, media, and independent state agencies by Fidesz transformed Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Hungary into a singular political regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Various scholars have described this regime as a mafia state, a hybrid democracy, a would-be fascist system, a form of legal authoritarianism, or an illiberal regime with autocratic features. Hungary was no longer a democracy, but neither was it a full-fledged authoritarian regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That said, P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s challenges will not be very different from those faced by Alfons\u00edn in Argentina, Su\u00e1rez in Spain, Wa\u0142\u0119sa in Poland, or Frei in Chile\u2014transitions to democracy that involved constitutional reforms, laws that established the supremacy of civilian authority, rehabilitated political parties, and expanded civil and political rights, without carrying out massive purges of the security apparatus, overhauling the entire judicial system, or prosecuting entire cadres of the previous regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Argentina\u2019s case, Ra\u00fal Alfons\u00edn faced several military uprisings, and Adolfo Su\u00e1rez had to contend with a coup attempt and far-right terrorism. Therefore, it is likely that the new government will face internal resistance and sabotage from Orb\u00e1n loyalists, especially if it seeks to dismantle the obstacles imposed by the previous regime. This could generate instability and re-legitimize Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this way, we may be witnessing a new type of democratization process, emerging from a regime that actively dismantled the rule of law and democratic institutions, but had not yet crossed the threshold into full authoritarianism\u2014as evidenced by its electoral reversal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n