Hungary - The Changing Roles of Civil Society and Social Movements Facing Autocratisation

Gerő, Márton and Kerényi, Szabina (2025) Hungary - The Changing Roles of Civil Society and Social Movements Facing Autocratisation. In: Power and Protest in Central and Eastern Europe. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology . Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, pp. 161-190. ISBN 9783031778872; 9783031778889

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Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss the interaction between the changing political context, protest issues, and the strength of organisational fields in Hungarian civil society. Protests, social movements, and participation in civil society are strictly connected to the social integration functions of civil society. We argue that through the changing organisational landscape, the transforming political context influences the forms of political participation and interest representation, along with issues of contention, which leads to the transformation of social integration roles of civil society. In particular, we focus on processes after the authoritarian turn in 2010, and on the hostile environment for CSOs and civil society in general. We have classified protest movements into four major categories: democracy, education, mobilisations focused on labour and pro-governmental activities, presenting an especially detailed analysis of mobilisations related to education. We examine the changes in organised civil society using data from the Central Statistical Office (KSH) between 2003 and 2020, and by reviewing the existing literature and public records of main protest events. Based on these, we contend that the changes in the political context after 2010 led to structural changes within organised civil society and social movements.

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