Saturday, April 16, 2016
Assembly G (DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City)
East Central European countries often struggle with technocratic elitism and illiberal populism which replace each other from time to time. Currently Hungary represents the case of nationalist populism, anti-democratic tendencies and the rise of a hybrid regime. The paper focuses on symbolic politics of the Orbán government which is interpreted in the context of the regime as a whole. For in post-2010 Hungary cultural policy cannot be viewed as one of the governmental sectors separable from the prime minister’s concept of power and symbolic politicking. The autocratic worldview and nationalist political culture are closely related to what his underlings perform under the rubric “cultural policy”. The cadres appointed as chiefs of a sector act according to the prime minister’s expectations.
Yet culture is a terrain that cannot be totally controlled. Not only because of the widespread use of electronic communicational means but also because culture is peculiar; inherently diverse and autonomous in terms of its creation and reception and potentially unconventional in providing new modes of perception and thinking. Institutions can be seized, a cultural administration can be unseated but culture cannot be replaced with the help of hate campaigns, propaganda, or symbolic politicking. For the Orbán regime, symbolic politicking is a means of dismissing culture and legitimizing its own dominance. The dynamics of this tension is elaborated in the paper.
