The statecraft lens, associated with Bulpitt (1986), provides a useful framework for assessing political leadership, focusing on the ability of governmental actors to gain and retain political power. This is well suited to an exploration of the consequences of radical right populist actors when they assume formal political power - and particularly positions of governmental leadership. Through an application of the five ‘benchmarks’ of statecraft (or ‘neo-statecraft’ theory) to the paradigmatic case of Viktor Orbán’s leadership of Hungary, this paper explores these confluences, finding that the statecraft lens is well suited means of exploring the means by which radical right populists gain and retain power. It makes two contributions: the first is to recast the processes of authoritarianisation and democratic degradation as one of statecraft, and the second is a more modest empirical contribution to the well understood consolidation of power since 2010 by Fidesz.
