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 ›
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 ›
A koronavírus idején, amikor az ország, sőt a világ nagy része be volt zárva, Novák József barátom arra kért engem, hogy beszélgessünk izgalmas témákról az interneten, hogy ne unatkozzunk annyira. Mivel nagyon izgalmas témákat nem találtunk, abban maradtunk, hogy életről,… Read More ›
“One striking feature about religious commitment today is how closely it aligns with conservative politics. Religiously committed Americans are very likely to vote Republican. Yet it wasn’t always that way. Alexis de Tocqueville famously attributed the strength of American religion… Read More ›
Demonstrators protesting Lex CEU / Source: CEU webpage Early in April, the Hungarian parliament, tightly controlled by the country’s autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orbán, passed a law aimed at forcing the closure of Budapest’s independent and prestigious Central European University…. Read More ›
I’m not much of a joiner, especially where politics is concerned, but recently I signed up with something called the Centrist Project. It’s a group that wants to overcome political polarization, which has reached a level they believe harms our… Read More ›
History is full of surprises, irony, and unintended consequences – which is one reason those who study history know better than to make predictions. Since, however, I’m not a historian, I’m foolish enough to make a few specific predictions about… Read More ›
I hate to be so partisan, but Trump’s relationship to Putin is simply scary. Here’s what I wrote for The Cresset. “Among the shocks Donald Trump has wrought to American politics, one of the biggest in my view has been… Read More ›
My two cents worth on Donald Trump for The Cresset. “If these are Trump’s supporters, we can begin to see that the strength of his support draws on something more than hatred and bigotry. Trump’s core constituency may have concluded,… Read More ›
Recently Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has started to argue for reinstating the death penalty. But the European Union prohibits capital punishment in its member states, and Orbán’s proposal has received a lot of flack in Brussels. Here’s my take… Read More ›
H. David Baer 