Caesarean politics in Hungary and Poland

2019/12/19 by Róbert Sata, Ireneusz Paweł Karolewski · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Religion and Society Interactions #Eastern European Communism and Reforms

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/21599165.2019.1703694

openalex publication_date 2019/12/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

We propose the new concept of Caesarean politics to explain democratic deconsolidation in Hungary and Poland. We argue the move towards illiberal democracy in both countries has been made possible by a shift towards Caesarean politics, in which radical changes are framed as “politics as usual”, while in fact these challenge the essence of liberal democracy. Focusing on the three pillars of Caesarean politics: (1) patronal politics, (2) state capture, and (3) identity politics, we show how both countries become cases of Caesarean politics, where, using discourses of “friends” and “enemies”, the leader coordinates vast patronal networks that capture the state.

Citations

• The Political Economy of State Capture in CentralEurope
• The Individual Bases of Political Trust: Trends in New and Established Democracies
• Europe’s Other Democratic Deficit: National Authoritarianism in Europe’s Democratic Union
• Consociational Democracy

Cited by

• Paradoxes of (Il)liberal democracy: the role of Christian Democracy
• Law and Justice [wikipedia]

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