Communist Populism in Hungary

Attila Antal ()
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Attila Antal: Institute of Political Science, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

Society and Economy, 2018, vol. 40, issue 4, 623-642

Abstract: According to Cas Mudde, we live in a “populist Zeitgeist”. The paper argues that not just the 21st, but also the 20th century is about populism. In the first section I elaborate the theoretical background of populism, which is claimed to be a never-ending phenomenon: here, various notions of populism are analysed; I investigate the relationship between democracy and populism; and I refer to the biopolitical framework of populism (called biopopulism) as well. This theoretical framework will be used to analyse Communist populism in Hungary. I elaborate the populism of the Horthyera (1920-1944) in the context of Communist populism. Then I analyse the case of Communist populism in Hungary (1948-1989) according to the following aspects: in the context of the working class and the bourgeois elite; the biopolitical character of the regime; goulash Communism as populist legitimacy; and the viewpoint of socialist patriotism. The main aspect of Communist populism is summarized at the end of the third section, and I briefly refer to the afterlife of Communist populism as a nostalgic phenomenon. The regimes analysed in this study aimed to govern the entire life of the citizens, which is why biopopulism is a useful analytical concept. The biopopulist framework shows that the investigation of the historical backgrounds of populism is necessary to understand contemporary populist tendencies.

Keywords: populism; Communism; biopolitics; Hungary (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: P29 Z00 Z19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: This study is a written and modified version of a lecture held at the Populism in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th Century Workshop 11-12 May 2017 in Paris.
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