Populist, Nationalist, and Authoritarian Discourse: A Critical Analysis of How Populist Radical Right Parties Frame Social Policy in Hungary

• Author / Creator

  Lugosi-Schimpf, Nicole Vanessa Theresa

• Hungary was once the star performer of democratic transition among the post-communist countries that joined the European Union in 2004. In recent years, however, Hungary now presents the most extreme case of democratic decline in the region, exacerbated by the rise of the Populist Radical Right (PRR). The relationship between the PRR and democratic decline in Central Eastern Europe has received wide scholarly attention. The literature that has examined Hungary mainly focuses on defining and/or measuring populism and its impacts. These studies miss the important role of PRR party discourse. In response, this qualitative dissertation explores the populist, nationalist, and authoritarian frames and framing strategies of the two PRR parties (Fidesz and Jobbik) in Hungary. I use two crucial, less likely social policy cases to empirically investigate PRR discourse. One case study looks at how PRR parties articulate welfare benefits in five policy areas. This is important because although the PRR is increasingly associated with welfare chauvinism, the literature mainly focuses on Western and Northern European cases. The other case study explores how PRR parties articulate education policy for Roma schoolchildren. The Roma are the largest and most oppressed minority in Hungary, so education is a pressing policy area. To study PRR discourse, I selected electoral manifestos and high-profile speeches such as annual commemorations and State of the Nation speeches from both parties between the 2010 to 2016 timeframe. I use two research methods to examine the documents in a coherent and systematic way. Interpretive grounded theory allowed me to organize and code the data and a critical frame analysis allowed me to unpack and categorize my findings. The main findings are six-fold: First, by analytically discerning between populist, nationalist, and authoritarian frames as overlapping but distinct, I found that nationalism was the most prominent element of PRR discourse. Second, while overlooked in the bulk of the PRR literature, gender is a key component in how nationalist and authoritarian frames are constructed. Third, while I anticipated that PRR parties would glance back to the Soviet era as legacy theory suggests, I did not anticipate the centrality of the “corrupt communist” theme in Fidesz discourse. Fourth, my research counters the idea that PRR parties tone down radicalism once in power. Fifth, beyond the dissertation's original goals, my findings disrupt the widely held assumption about Hungary’s unexpected and sharp turn to the PRR, especially since 2014. Instead, I find evidence of strong populist, nationalist, and authoritarian discourse well in advance of 2014. Sixth, I find ample evidence to support ideas that Fidesz and Jobbik are ideologically converging, which blurs the lines between mainstream and extremist positions. This dissertation makes two major contributions for the discipline of political science more generally and the study of populism more specifically. First, this work addresses a gap in the PRR literature by paying close attention to discourse to help explain PRR party agency and strategy. Second, this research carefully distinguishes between populism, nationalism, and authoritarianism (the defining features of the PRR as a party family) for conceptual clarity on how these parties compete.

• Graduation date

  2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-t9d6-1b81

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.