Atlas / Organisations / Orbánism
Orbánism
Fidesz · 2010– · Hungary · National Conservative · Electoral party · coding confidence high
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
Explicitly 'illiberal democracy': majority rule unconstrained by liberal checks, Christian national identity, opposition to immigration.
Economic model
Sector taxes on foreign firms, national champions built through state contracts, generous family subsidies, low flat income tax.
Organisation of powers
Constitutional court packed, electoral law rewritten, most media consolidated under allied ownership, universities restructured.
Reading note
The reference case for the modern claim that a government can be electorally legitimate and institutionally anti-pluralist at once.
Check a claim about Orbánism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored +04
Coded mildly market: a flat income tax alongside large family transfers and sectoral taxes on foreign firms.
- Documented act or statuteA fifteen percent flat personal income tax with income tax exemption for mothers of four or more children.
- Documented act or statuteSector-specific taxes applied principally to foreign-owned banking, retail and telecoms.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored +08
Coded +8: Christian national identity written into the constitution and into family and education law.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2011 Fundamental Law defines marriage as between a man and a woman and invokes Christianity in its preamble.
- Documented act or statuteA 2021 law restricted depiction of homosexuality and gender reassignment to minors.
AU · Organisation of power · scored +07
The reference case for the entry. Elections are real and the institutions that could reverse their outcome have been restructured.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2011 constitution and subsequent amendments restructured the constitutional court and the judicial appointment system.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2018 consolidation of some four hundred outlets into a single foundation removed most independent broadcast and print media.
- Programme textThe 'illiberal state' formulation is the government's own, stated at Băile Tuşnad in 2014.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +06
Coded +6: sovereigntist against Brussels and strongly centralising internally.
- Documented act or statuteMunicipal competences and school administration were centralised after 2010.
ID · Rule of membership · scored +07
Coded +7 on migration and on the ancestral definition of the nation.
- Documented act or statuteCitizenship was extended to ethnic Hungarians abroad in 2010, with voting rights; the 2015 border fence and asylum restrictions followed.
CH · Method and tempo · scored −01
Coded near neutral: change achieved entirely through constitutional supermajorities.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2010 supermajority permitted constitutional amendment without any negotiation with the opposition.
How it moved
Positions are recorded at dated anchor points tied to a documented moment — a programme adopted, a government formed, a reversal. Nothing is interpolated between them, because nothing is known between them. Figures in amber moved by two points or more from the previous anchor.
| Anchor | EC | CU | AU | SC | ID | CH | What it is tied to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | +06 | −02 | −05 | +01 | +01 | −05 | Founded as a liberal anti-communist youth party and a member of the Liberal International. |
| 1998 | +06 | +04 | −02 | +03 | +04 | −05 | First term as a mainstream centre-right party in a normal coalition. |
| 2010 | +04 | +07 | +04 | +05 | +06 | −02 | Two-thirds majority; a new constitution written and adopted within a year. |
| 2024 | +04 | +08 | +07 | +06 | +07 | −01 | Media consolidation, judicial restructuring, and the illiberal state described as such by its own government. |
Net movement, 1990 to 2024: EC −2, CU +10, AU +12, SC +5, ID +6, CH +4. A trajectory records where an organisation has been. It does not forecast, and several organisations in this corpus moved a long way with no warning available in advance.
Where it came from, and what came after
- takes its doctrine fromNational Conservatism
The national conservative statement was drafted by people who cite his government as the model.
- was succeeded byLaw and Justice
Parallel projects that have publicly cited each other since 2015.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
- AKP1.7
- Bharatiya Janata Party2.0
- Vučić and Georgian Dream2.0
- Estado Novo2.8
- Hindutva2.8
- National Resistance Movement3.7
Countries
Cite this page
Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.