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Thanks for clarifying. So what you meant was that Orban and a small circle of people already in the Hungarian government got strong powers from the parliament t

by effie 5y ago

Thanks for clarifying. So what you meant was that Orban and a small circle of people already in the Hungarian government got strong powers from the parliament to rule by decree and they use it to suppress civil liberties and liberal values and this is dangerous. I think I agree with that, but at the same time, this seems to be completely democratic process. I don't see autocracy or minority rule. I would be pissed if this happened in my country, but that is the problem with democracy - sometimes the naive and scared majority takes you democratically to hell.

toss1 5y ago
Yup, that is exactly what happened in Germany in the 1920s-30s - the National Socialists and Hitler were 'democratically' elected, and went forward to subvert everything. But I would say that just because a group can subvert the rules and institutions of democracy once in power, that they are still a small-d democratic regime because they were initially elected and followed some of the forms. E.g., Putin just won his elections, but only after he put his primary opposition in jail...