The De-institutionalization of Political Opposition in Hungary 2002-2014

Political opposition in Hungary has evolved under particular circumstances after systemic changes. In the first place parties proved stable, an unexpected phenomenon in most new democracies; second, certain consensual institutions – more particularly the range of 2/3 legislation in parliament – required and, for some time, ensured a niche for bargaining between government and opposition parties. The period under investigation in this chapter provides an opportunity to explore the de-institutionalization of this equilibrium. In fact, the 2002-2014 period can be divided into two parts. In the first part (2002-2010) with the transformation of the partisan actors, the government-opposition divide deepened and consensual institutions often produced deadlocks. After 2010, as new parties emerged and the former duality of the political scene has been replaced by a tri-polar setup, including an extreme right party, the changing behaviour of the parties can be clearly observed. Consensual behaviour between the old left and right has virtually disappeared while the mainstream right can often rely on the support of the extreme right. This partisan and parliamentary context is coloured by the diminishing importance of the parliamentary scene and the dominance of “media politics”. The analysis is built on a new database about the parties’ legislative behaviour between 2002 and 2014, throughout three parliamentary and six government periods. The analysis brings forward contrasting trends in the government-opposition divide: mainstream parties are getting further away from each other in their parliamentary behaviour while both the extremist and the niche parties provide some support for the post-2010 right wing governments. The chapter seeks to examine the background of this duality by analysing the parties’ issue and policy profiles and aims to contribute to the debate about the changing nature of the opposition in the new millennium.