Twenty-Five Sides of a Post-Communist Mafia State

ISBN: 
978-615-5513-62-6
paperback
$50.95 / €42.95 / £36.95
Kindle edition is available through Amazon
Publication date: 
2017
660 pages

The twenty-five essays accompany, illustrate and underpin the conceptual framework elaborated in Post-Communist Mafia Statepublished in conjunction with this volume. Leading specialists analyze the manifestations of the current political regime in Hungary from twenty-five angles. Topics discussed include the ideology, constitutional issues, social policy, the judiciary, foreign relations, nationalism, media, memory politics, corruption, civil society, education, culture and so on. Beyond the basic features of the economy the domains of taxation, banking system, energy policies and the agriculture are treated in dedicated studies.

The essays are based on detailed empirical investigation about conditions in today’s Hungary. They nevertheless contribute to the exploration of the characteristic features of post-communist authoritarian regimes, shared by an increasing number of countries in Europe and Central Asia.

1. Balázs Trencsényi: What Should I Call You? The Crisis of Hungarian Democracy in a Regional Interpretative Framework
2. György Csepeli: The Ideological Patchwork of the Mafia State
3. Imre Vörös: A “Constitutional” Coup in Hungary between 2010–2014
4. Zoltán Fleck: Law under the Mafia State
5. Bálint Magyar: The Post-Communist Mafia State as a Form of Criminal State
6. András Becker: The Circulation of Oligarchs
7. Dávid Jancsics: From Local Cliques to Mafia State: The Evolution of Network Corruption
8. Zoltán Lakner: Links in the Chain: Patron-Client Relations in the Mafia State
9. Balázs Krémer: The Social Policy of the Mafia State and Its Impact on Social Structure
10. László Békesi: The Economic Policy of the Mafia State 
11. Károly Attila Soós: Tributes Paid through Special Taxes: Populism and the Displacement of “Aliens” 
12. István Csillag: Getting Rich as Mission: Swapping Elites on a Family Basis
13. Éva Várhegyi: The Banks of the Mafia State 
14. Iván Major: Utility Price Cuts and Sector-Specific Taxes in Network Industries 
15. András Deák: Captured by Power: The Expansion of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant 
16. Pál Juhász: Controlled Competition in the Agriculture 
17. Márton Kozák: Western Social Development with an Eastern Set of Values?
18. Krisztián Ungváry: “One Camp, One Banner”: How Fidesz Views History 
19. György Gábor: The Land of an Appropriated God: Sacred Political Symbols and Symbolic Political Sacrality 
20. András Bozóki: Nationalism and Hegemony: Symbolic Politics and Colonization of Culture
21. Mária Vásárhelyi: The Workings of the Media: A Brainwashing and Money-Laundering Mechanism 
22. Mihály Andor: Restoring Servility in the Educational Policy
23. Ádám C. Nagy: The Taming of Civil Society
24. Zoltán Ripp: The Opposition to the Mafia State 
25. Attila Ara-Kovács: Diplomacy of the Orbán Regime
Epilogue. Iván Szelényi: Capitalism after Communism

"This book is a massive (662 pages) series of twenty-five studies by well-known, liberal Hungarian scholars about the short-comings of the Viktor Orbán-led Hungarian government. It is an abbreviated version of a previously published three-volume work by Bálint Magyar, co-editor of this volume with Julia Vásárhelyi. When searching for an apt description of the current Orbán regime, Mr. Bálint characterized it as a 'Post-communist Mafia State'. Rejecting other frameworks to describe the existing Orbán regime, such as dictatorial, authoritarian, or illiberal democracy, consecutive included essays have accepted the Mafia State paradigm. Unlike the traditional (Sicilian) mafia which spreads its tentacles underground, in the case of Hungary it has been operating in the open. The ensuing studies zeroed in on how the Orbán government had subverted the previously existing checks and balances of the multi-party democratic system. The aims... more
"Na pierwszy rzut oka tytuł może zniechęcić. Kojarzy się z epitetem, propa- gandowym pamfletem, jarmarkiem niedowarzonych polityków. Kto tę prze- szkodę w odbiorze przezwycięży, przekona się, że redaktorzy i autorzy musie- li być takiego skojarzenia świadomi, lecz zachowali jednak tytuł, gdyż przyjęli rozbudowaną koncepcję takiego państwa mafijnego i uznali, że spełnia ona wymogi narzędzia badań."