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Public Choice
Published in: Public Choice 1-2/2021

06-02-2021

Hungary's U-turn in Kornai's system paradigm perspective: a case for national authoritarian capitalism

Authors: Pierre-Yves Hénin, Ahmet Insel

Published in: Public Choice | Issue 1-2/2021

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Abstract

In an article published in 2016, János Kornai proposes to add a third form of governance between democracy and dictatorship to his binary model of system paradigm. It is an autocratic capitalist system, marked by the dilution of the principle of the separation of powers in favor of a strongman and an institutionalized clientelism. This paper proposes to analyze Kornai’s third modality of economic and political organization in the context of national authoritarian capitalism (NACa), a variety of capitalism with more or less severe forms of authoritarian social control and mobilization of a nationalist culture. The main characteristics of NACa, of which Victor Orban's Hungary is a significant example, are outlined and the question of the stability of that form of government is raised.
previous article Is there a demand for autocracies in Europe? Comparing the attitudes of Hungarian and Italian university students toward liberal democratic values inspired by János Kornai

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Footnotes
1
“The interventions of dictators restrain the spread of inventions, innovations and business news, which curbs participation in the global business network. Sooner or later, technical revolution induced by computers will pressure countries … to lift their barriers to freedom of speech and freedom of association, and thus to encourage democracy, or to fall behind inexorably in the global economic competition” (Kornai 2000b, p. 37).
 
2
Although they have some similarities with the fascisms of the twentieth century, the populist regimes and NACas of the first quarter of the twenty-first century do not use the same modalities of social mobilization or the same forms of violence and domination (Stanley, 2018). Enzo Traverso uses the term post-fascism for these regimes (Traverso, 2019).
 
3
Prior to our suggestion, similar expressions have been adopted incidentally in the literature. Peter Bloom alludes to “a new fantasy of national authoritarian capitalism” (Bloom 2016, p. 52). Aaron Friedberg also mentions briefly “a regime type that can best be described as nationalist authoritarian capitalism” (Friedberg 2017, p. 12).
 
4
As a consequence, for Jenny Andersson, “Perhaps the greatest paradox of all is that neoliberalism has spawned authoritarianism” (Andersson 2018). For a longer-term perspective and a different view, see Vahabi et al. (2020).
 
5
According to Homi Kharas and Harinder Kohli (2011, p. 282), “Many middle-income countries do not follow the [Republic of Korea] pattern. Instead, they have bursts of growth followed by periods of stagnation or even decline, or are stuck at low growth rates. They are caught in the Middle Income Trap—unable to compete with low-income, low-wage economies in manufactured exports and unable to compete with advanced economies in high-skill innovations.”
 
6
“Henri IV ne fut pas un des moins despotes des rois de France et cependant la France prospéra sous son règne, parce qu’on n’y tracassait pas les gens.” in Jean-Baptiste Say, Cours complet d’économie politique, quoted by Chavagneux (2015).
 
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Metadata
Title
Hungary's U-turn in Kornai's system paradigm perspective: a case for national authoritarian capitalism
Authors
Pierre-Yves Hénin
Ahmet Insel
Publication date
06-02-2021
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Public Choice / Issue 1-2/2021
Print ISSN: 0048-5829
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7101
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-021-00882-1

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