Freedom House: Hungary is no longer a democracy but a ‘hybrid regime’
In 2020, Freedom House, a U.S.-based research institute and human rights advocate, qualified Hungary as a ‘hybrid regime’ in its annual report, Nations in Transit. Serbia, Montenegro, and other Balkan countries were similarly criticised because of their declining standards in governance, elections, and media freedom.
The report analyses the state of democracy in 29 countries in Central Europe and Central Asia. Nations in Transit evaluates the countries based on seven main criteria and gives numerical ratings based on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing the lowest and 7 the highest level of democracy. These categories are the following:
- National Democratic Governance
- Electoral Process
- Civil Society
- Independent Media
- Local Democratic Governance
- Judicial Framework and Independence
- Corruption
Each country receives a Democracy Score, which is the average of the seven indicators. In 2020, Freedom House introduced the Democracy Percentage, which converts the Democracy Score to a scale from 0-100. Last year, Hungary scored 51; however, in the latest survey, only 49, which means that it lost its status as a ‘semi-consolidated democracy’. Compared to the previous year’s result, the country got a lower rating in the categories of ‘Electoral Process’, ‘Local Democratic Governance’, and ‘Corruption’.
● Consolidated Democracy: 68−100
● Semi-Consolidated Democracy: 51−67
● Transitional or Hybrid Regime: 34−50
● Semi-Consolidated Authoritarian Regime: 18−33
● Consolidated Authoritarian Regime: 0−17
“Hungary’s decline has been the most precipitous ever tracked in Nations in Transit; it was one of the three democratic frontrunners as of 2005, but in 2020, it became the first country to descend by two regime categories and leave the group of democracies entirely,” claimed the report.
The Executive Summary about Hungary by Gábor Filippov can be found HERE.
The report argues that numerous Central European and Central Asian political leaders are openly attacking democratic institutions. This region can also be characterised by attacks on judicial independence, threats against civil society, and electoral manipulation, which have resulted in a democratic breakdown.
Freedom House treated Hungary together with a part of the Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia), Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. These countries constitute the middle category labelled ’transitional or hybrid regime’. They are described as electoral democracies that challenge the political and civil rights and have fragile democratic institutions. ‘Semi-consolidated democracies’, such as Croatia, Romania, Poland, or Bulgaria, represent a more stable and democratic government system and free and fair elections.
In the latest report, Hungary was considered a ‘semi-consolidated democracy’ and a ‘consolidated democracy’ before 2015.
The fact that Hungary descended two categories in a short time is unprecedented in the history of the report that has been published regularly for 25 years. Freedom House accused the current government with “centralizing power, tilting the electoral playing field, taking over much of the media, and harassing critical civil society organizations”. The report further highlighted issues such as the unequal access to state resources, the high level of corruption, or the undemocratic aspect of the 2020 adoption of the emergency law that enables the government to rule by decree indefinitely.
The graph shows that starting from the level of Poland, Hungary has gradually descended into the same category as Serbian democracy, while the situation in Poland has also deteriorated significantly.
Source: freedomhouse.org