The De- and Re-Democratization (DRD) Workgroup of the CEU Democracy Institute cordially invites you to the inaugural event of its new series of book presentations entitled Illuminating Books on Democracy and Authoritarianism.
If you would like to attend, please register here.
Book:
Dániel Mikecz: Civil Movements in an Illiberal Regime. Political Activism in Hungary (CEU Press, 2023)
Dániel Mikecz addresses in this study the tensions between oppositional civil society and party-political actors. As successive elections demonstrate the increasing confidence of the illiberal regime of Viktor Orbán, left and liberal parties of the opposition have faced a prolonged crisis in credibility. At the same time, the civil society has not been immobile, and bottom-up initiatives, social and political movements, and non-governmental organizations have gained momentum in the public sphere. The ruling power is also active in the extra-parliamentary political arena. Through national consultations, Peace Marches, and other means, Orbán’s governing Fidesz party has mobilized voters outside of election campaigns and has implemented a so-called movement governance. The study offers a vivid examination of this top-down or astroturf mobilization of the regime.
Mikecz identifies the different patterns of activism and creates a coherent typology. He describes in detail each kind of activism based on opinion surveys, protest surveys and content analysis. The categorization and comprehensive exploration of civil movements provide a deep understanding of the mechanisms of illiberal postcommunist regimes.
Author:
Daniel Mikecz, PhD is a political scientist. He focuses on social movements, civil society, political participation. Since 2013 he has been a researcher at the Center for Social Sciences, Institute for Political Science in Budapest. From 2010 he has held various courses at the Eötvös Loránd University on protest movements and political participation.
Discussants:
Andrea Krizsan is Lead Researcher for the Inequalities and Democracy Working Group and Senior Research Fellow at the Democracy Institute and Professor at the Department of Public Policy and the Gender Studies Department. She is interested in understanding inequalities and social justice related policy change in countries of Central and Eastern Europe. She works on different equality policy fields including gender equality policy, policies on gender-based violence, policies addressing ethnic inequalities and intersectionality. Her current research analyzes the politics of policy backsliding in times of democratic erosion and forms of civil resistance to such reversal. Her most recent book with Conny Roggeband is on opposition to the Istanbul Convention and its consequences (Palgrave 2021).
Bernadett Sebaly a research affiliate at CEU Democracy Institute. She is pursuing a PhD at CEU's Doctoral School of Public Policy. Her field of research is the policy impact of social movements. Her dissertation focuses on the relationship between movement structures, constituent participation, and policy impact. She is particularly interested in how the combination of movement strategies influences a just political-economic transition. Her goal is to link the worlds of social movements and academia. She draws on her 10 years of experience working in various sectors of civil society. She is proud to have helped design and build a community organizing program in Hungary, coordinated Civilizáció, a national network of CSOs, and co-founded and organized in The City Is For All, a multi-class housing group. She was the winner of CEU's 1st-year PhD award for 2019/2020, and a Visiting Graduate Scholar at P3 Lab at SNF Agora at Johns Hopkins University in 2022/2023. She has led participatory action research with the European Community Organizing Network and the School of Public Life, where she holds regular trainings.
Moderator:
Giorgos Venizelos is a Fellow in Political Polarization within the De-/Re- Democratization Work Group at the Democracy Institute. His research integrates comparative politics, political communication, and contemporary political theory, primarily focusing on populism in power, anti-populism, collective identities, and social movements. Giorgos is currently investigating the relevance of anti-populism in the post-truth era and the way populism is associated with fake news, and conspiracy theories in expert and commentator discourse. He authored Populism in Power: Discourse and Performativity in SYRIZA and Donald Trump and published in journals like Political Studies, Constellations, Critical Sociology and Representation and various edited volumes. He earned his PhD from Scuola Normale Superiore, MA from Goldsmiths College, and BA from the University of Essex. Before joining CEU, he researched and taught at the University of Cyprus, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Cyprus University of Technology.