The fall of democracy and the rule of law fall to authoritarianism: An example

A number of things reassure some Americans that democracy and the rule of law will not fall to some form of authoritarianism or autocracy. They see little to modest cause for concern. Reassurances come from things like a long democratic history, ethics rules and laws, democratic norms and institutions, e.g., courts, a free press and a vigorous political opposition. 

However, recent poll data indicates that most Americans are now seriously concerned. NPR commented yesterday: “One year after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Americans are deeply pessimistic about the future of democracy. A new NPR/Ipsos poll finds that 64% of Americans believe U.S. democracy is ‘in crisis and at risk of failing.’ Overall, 70% of poll respondents agree that the country is in crisis and at risk of failing.” 

A striking thing about those concerns is that they are mostly partisan. Republicans generally believe that Democrats are hell bent on establishing a brutal, atheist, socialist or communist tyranny. Democrats generally fear Republican authoritarianism and right wing autocracy. One question that raises, is the threat from each side about equal? Is there equivalence, more or less?

Some (most?) experts agree and are now warning of an imminent, serious threat to American democracy. At least one expert now sees the US as an anocracy, neither democracy nor autocracy. Most experts appear to see right wing autocratic tyranny as the main threat, not socialist or communist tyranny. 

The example of Hungary and the rise of radical right authoritarianism

The New York Times writes:

After years of complacency and wishful thinking, Brussels is finally trying to rein in the country’s pugnacious leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

After long indulging him, leaders in the European Union now widely consider Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary an existential threat to a bloc that holds itself up as a model of human rights and the rule of law.

Mr. Orban has spent the past decade steadily building his “illiberal state,” as he proudly calls Hungary, with the help of lavish E.U. funding. Even as his project widened fissures in the bloc, which Hungary joined in 2004, his fellow national leaders mostly looked the other way, committed to staying out of one another’s affairs.

But now Mr. Orban’s defiance and intransigence has had an important, if unintended, effect: serving as a catalyst for an often-sluggish European Union system to act to safeguard the democratic principles that are the foundation of the bloc.

Early this year, the European Court of Justice will issue a landmark decision on whether the union has the authority to make its funds to member states conditional on meeting the bloc’s core values. Doing so would allow Brussels to deny billions of euros to countries that violate those values.

The bloc has consistently worked on political consensus among national leaders. But Mr. Orban has pushed Brussels toward a threshold it had long avoided: making membership subject to financial punishments, not merely political ones.

The new frontier could help solve an old problem — what to do about bad actors in its ranks — while creating new ones. Not least, it could invite the European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, to exercise a new level of interference in the affairs of member states.

How Mr. Orban has forced the European Union to such a juncture, and why it seemed helpless to stop him for so long, says much about the bloc’s founding assumptions and why it has stumbled in the face of populist and nationalist challenges.  

Mr. Orban’s party adopted the new Constitution and a new media law that curbed press freedom. It overhauled the country’s justice system, removed the head of its Supreme Court and created an office to oversee the courts led by the wife of a prominent member of the governing party, Fidesz. Election laws were changed to favor the party. 

Does any of that sound familiar, e.g., changing election laws to favor the party?

The NYT article points out that EU leaders did not confront Orban about the rule of law, corruption or authoritarianism. EU leaders, being politicians, did not want to confront him because he won an election. That is what politicians respected. Their professed core democratic values were subjugated to their core political values. That gave Orban the political room he needed to usurp democracy in Hungary without significant EU opposition.

One can ask, in what way is this relevant to US politics? The NYT article comments that on Monday, the ex-president endorsed Orban for re-election. Trump even pledged his “complete support.” On the other hand, Orban was an early supporter of Trump. He endorsing him in the summer of 2016 and again in 2020. Tellingly, Orban commented about Trump: “probably, like me, a little bit controversial, but that’s OK.”

A little bit controversial? Maybe that is how right wing authoritarians see themselves. Just a little bit controversial, nothing more. Maybe that is how left wing extremists see themselves too.

Recently Fox News, the flagship propaganda arm of the Republican Party, broadcast from Hungary and lavished praise on Orban for doing such a good job. While in Hungary, the self-professed professional liar, Tucker Carlson, commented on the differences between Biden and Orban: 

“Because the lessons are so obvious, and such a clear refutation to the policies we currently have, and the people who instituted those policies, Hungary and its government have been ruthlessly attacked and unfairly attacked: 'It's authoritarian, they're fascists…' There are many lies being told right now, that may be the greatest of all. .... The elite [Democrats and Biden] has turned against its own people, and that's not healthy. Simply put, the leadership of the country hates the American people. .... He [Orban] is defending democracy against the unaccountable billionaires, the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and certain western governments. He is fighting for democracy against those forces which would like to bury it.”

So there you have it. One of the top Republican Party propagandists calls Democrats and Biden authoritarian fascists who want to bury democracy. No wonder most Republicans see a deadly threat from Democrats. Carlson and most Republicans see Orban and themselves as fighting for democracy against billionaires and other bad groups and people. By analogy with Republican thinking, EU political leaders must also be authoritarian fascists for criticizing Orban.

Questions: 

1. Is the threat to American democracy and the rule of law about the same from Democrats and Republicans?

2. Is Hungary now authoritarian, or even fascist?

Fascism: a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy, often tinged with racial or ethnic bigotry and hostility to a free press