Exclusion or cooptation?: The varying impact of political and discursive opportunity structures on the civil society and state relationship in Hungary

While it is well-known that democratic backsliding imposes a variety of challenges to civil society organizations (CSOs), it is often assumed that it affects civil society as a whole. However, a closer look at the impact of democratic backsliding on CSOs reveals that even in countries more affected by the backsliding, the relationship between civil society and the state is more complex. Clearly, close cooperation and partnership between CSOs and the state are scarce in these countries, as the main aim of governments is to increase control on independent civil society organizations, the relationship between CSOs and the state might still range from hostile to varying forms and degrees of cooptation. In this paper, based on interviews with representatives of CSOs and the examination of field-specific social and political environment, we aim to explore the different forms and factors that shape the relationship between CSOs and the state in Hungary. More specifically, we analyze the impact of the changing political and discursive opportunity structures on three classical types of CSOs: Women’s organizations, environmental organizations, and human rights organizations. While in Hungary only small groups of citizens are directly concerned with the protection of human rights, women’s and family issues, as well as environmental protection and climate change enjoy wider popularity. We argue that this is well reflected in the issue-specific regulations and the tools the government applies: sometimes direct exclusion, in other cases some form of cooptation serves well the goal to seize control over the different fields.