Viktor Orbán has a habit of giving controversial speeches in Romania. His notorious 2014 illiberalism speech was delivered there. Just a few weeks ago, he delivered another whopper, which included unmistakably racist language. In an essay I wrote for The… Read More ›
Hungary
Hungary’s Autocrat Orbán Fends Off Opposition Challenge
I wrote this short article for The Bulwark on April 3, 2022, the night of Viktor Orbán’s big election victory. It was a first take, which I think has held up pretty well. You can read it here.
Expect a Viktor Orbán Win Next Month
This article was published in The Bulwark. Not only do I predict what will happen in Hungary’s election, but I explain why making this prediction is easy – because Hungary’s not a democracy. This first two paragraphs of the article… Read More ›
Interview with Zoltán Fleck, Chair of Péter Márki-Zay’s Constitutional Working Group
Zoltán Fleck is a Professor of Law and Sociology at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. He was recently appointed by Péter Márki-Zay, the leader of Hungary’s democratic opposition, to head up a working group tasked with examining constitutional… Read More ›
A Last Conversation with Eva Balogh about Hungary
This is an unusual and special episode of BaerTalk. Originally, it was a session of a class I team-teach at Texas Lutheran University called “Democracies in Crisis.” I invited two experts, Dalibor Rohac and Eva Balogh, to speak to the… Read More ›
Orbán’s Biographer – My Interview with József Debreczeni
József Debreczeni is a former Hungarian politician who served as a personal advisor to Viktor Orbán between 1994 and 1996. Since then Debreczeni has written extensively on Hungarian politics and public life. His enormous output has helped to document Hungary’s… Read More ›
CPAC Is Going to Hungary, Never Mind Viktor Orban’s Attacks on Churches
Here’s a short piece about Hungary that I wrote for The Unhttps://theunpopulist.substack.com/Populist, a substack newsletter started by Shikha Dalmia which is committed to defending liberal democracy and opposing the rise of authoritarianism around the globe. “In his Metamorphoses, written after… Read More ›
Three Myths About Viktor Orbán and His Remaking of Hungary
This article was published in The Bulwark. Below is a teaser. You can read the full article by clicking the link at the bottom of the post. “When Hungarian armies invaded Europe around A.D. 900, shooting arrows from horseback and… Read More ›
Nazis, Communists, and Complicity in Evil
What drives people to cooperate with evil? I explore this question with Alex Faludy, a journalist based in Budapest, and Robert Ericksen, Kurt Mayer Chair of Holocaust Studies Emeritus at Pacific Lutheran University. We consider the cases of Nazi and… Read More ›
Is Rod Dreher’s Live Not By Lies a Good Book?
H. David Baer (professor of theology), Alexander Faludy (journalist, church historian), and Joseph Novak (Hungarian Baptist pastor) discuss Ron Dreher’s new book, Live Not By Lies, and consider the questions: How well has Dreher described the experience of East European Christians? Is Dreher right to draw parallels between 20th century communism and American today?
H. David Baer 