The Potential of Movement Strategies to Shape Governance. A Comparative Case Study of Hungarian Housing Struggles across Neoliberal and Illiberal Regimes

What is the potential of different movement strategies to shape housing governance, and how do alignments and misalignments between strategic orientations and political opportunities determine whether this potential is realized? This paper explores possible answers in a case study on the post-2010 conservative shift in housing policies in Hungary. I integrate Gramscian theory into the research on movement strategies, and analyze the combination of two factors: (1) how social movement organizations engage political parties in social struggles (orientation to state power), and (2) how they bolster the position of their constituencies (orientation to constituency power). I identify four strategic approaches along these state power-constituency power axes and examine the potential of two strategies. The research is designed as a comparative case study of two prominent movement organizations involved in housing struggles in Hungary: the conservative National Association of Large Families (Nagycsaládosok Országos Egyesülete, NOE) (1987-present) and the leftist The City Is For All (A Város Mindenkié, AVM) (2010-present). The primary data sources for the case studies are printed and online media articles (N=773), organizational documents (N=364), and semi-structured interviews with movement leaders and experts (n=4). My findings show that movement organizations have the greatest potential to shape governance when they can leverage political parties’ dependence on movement constituencies during an emerging political opportunity and turn that dependence into influence over the structure of a new, emerging political and social alliance. Movement organizations can achieve this most effectively when they combine social and organizational embeddedness – a mass base – with a long-term strategic political alignment with a party.