Digital Campaigning under Hybrid Regimes: Hungary and Serbia in Comparative Perspective

Merkovity, Norbert and Zakinszky Toma, Viktória (2026) Digital Campaigning under Hybrid Regimes: Hungary and Serbia in Comparative Perspective. COMPARATIVE SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN STUDIES, 74 (2). pp. 265-288. ISSN 2701-8199

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Abstract

This article examines the evolution of digital campaigning in Hungary and Serbia from the 1990s to the 2020s, situating both countries within debates on digitalisation under hybrid regimes. While research on digital campaigning has focused mainly on Western democracies, Southeastern Europe and East Central Europe remains underexplored, despite its combination of weak institutions, populist leadership, and contested democratisation. Using a comparative historical approach and triangulating academic research, NGO reports, and available campaign data, the study traces three phases: the early adoption of party websites in the 1990s–2000s, the social media turn of the 2010s, and the platform- and analytics-driven strategies of the 2020s. The analysis highlights convergence with global trends in personalisation, mediatisation, and data-driven campaigning, but also divergence shaped by regime type, media capture, and EU integration. Hungary and Serbia illustrate that the development of digital campaigning in Southeastern Europe follows a distinct trajectory within global patterns.

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