slovo, Vol. 23 No. 2, Autumn, 2011, 114–31
Radical Right Culture and the Youth: The Development of Contemporary Hungarian Political Culture Erin Saltman School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London
This paper addresses the rise in support for radical-right parties and organizations in Hungary and its relation to the post-communist development of civil society. Unlike the primarily liberal democratic political youth movements in the first years after Hungarian transformation, the current youth population is showing higher tendencies towards support of traditionalism and of radical-right organizations. Rejuvenated by the radical-right political party Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik) and its related radical civic programs and organizations, the radical-right is creating a strong social network for young Hungarians, building cultural, historical and community structures and having an affect on everything from music and fashion to value formation. The aim of this paper is two-fold. First it is necessary to track the structural political developments that opened the door for radicalism in Hungarian political culture, solidifying strong networks of symbolic politics and value orientation over economic and structural platforms to gain electoral support. The secondary analysis looks at how the contemporary radical-right networks have rejuvenated their support base with modern political mechanisms in order to become less marginalized and more intertwined with political culture and civil society compared with previous radical-right movements in Hungary.
Introduction Is liberal democracy at death’s door in Central and East Europe? This question was posed by Ivan Krastev in an article in 2007 looking at the array of developing forms of extreme nationalism, populism, corruption and manipulation scattered within the post-communist political system. Hungary was listed among the countries of potential liberal backsliders, depicted as a nation in a ‘cold civil war’ caught between a shrewd post-communist Socialist government that had admitted to lying to win the 2006 elections, and a populist anti-communist opposition that left a door © School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 2011