Den demokratiska tillbakagången i Ungern : En kvalitativ fallstudie av Ungerns demokratiska tillbakagång under perioden 2010-2025

This study analyzes Hungary's democratic backsliding under Viktor Orbáns term of office between 2010 and 2025. The research questions addressed in this study are “Which central institutional reforms can be identified as significant for Hungary’s democratic backsliding under Viktor Orbán’s rule from 2010 to 2025?” and “In what ways have these reforms contributed to a process of democratic backsliding?” The study is based on a qualitative case method. To be able to conduct this study, secondary sources such as academic literature and reports from international organizations have been analyzed in detail. The analysis is guided by two theoretical frameworks: the first one is Nancy Bermeo's theory about democratic backsliding, and the second one is Levitsky & Ziblatt's three authoritarian warning signs, which is used as a theoretical complement. The analysis shows that the democratic backsliding in Hungary did not occur suddenly through the ablation of democratic institutions but rather through gradual and formally legal reforms. The institutions that had a significant impact on Hungary's democratic backsliding are the judiciary, the electoral system, the media and civil society. Through constitutional reforms, the weakening of the judiciary's functions and the narrowing of the media's and civil society's room for action increased the concentration of power in the executive branch while weakening the central institutional control mechanisms. This has led to an internal erosion of democracy, while its formal structure remains intact.