Stephen Holmes: Illiberal Democracy

This event was recorded on 26 June 2015 at the IWM Library.

Keynote Speech at the Conference
HUNGARY 2015 – Mapping the “System of National Cooperation”
June 26-27, 2015

Jointly organized by the Central European University, Pasts, Inc. Center for Historical Studies and the IWM. Generously supported by Grüne Bildungswerkstatt, Green European Foundation and The Greens/EFA.

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Stephen Holmes gave the keynote speech of the conference HUNGARY 2015: Mapping the “System of National Cooperation”, jointly organized by the Central European University (CEU), Pasts, Inc. Center for Historical Studies and the IWM.

Putting aside for the moment questions of electoral opportunism, rhetorical posturing, and redistributive cronyism, the lecture provides a historical and comparative context for evaluating Orban’s attempt to frame his way of ruling Hungary as “illiberal democracy.” How should we understand the relation between Orbán’s audaciously frontal assault on the liberal state and the virulent anti-liberalism of the 1930s? To what extent is Orbán’s illiberalism unique to Hungary and to what extent is it a reflection of wider, even global, trends today? The perennial and widespread charge that liberalism is a hypocritical philosophy that masks the decision of political elites to favor the strong over the weak behind a façade of abstract rights, anonymous procedures, and neutral rules needs to be faced head-on. Does liberalism, understood as the governing philosophy of Western democracies, really ignore the need for political leadership, the importance of national identity, and the value of public patrimony? Is Orbán right to claim that liberalism provides no resources for dealing with the challenge of mass immigration? Is liberalism really a threat to the sovereignty of nation-states struggling to manage the uncertainties produced by globalization and economic crisis?

Stephen Holmes is Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law and Faculty CO-director of the Center on Law and Security at New York University.
The main focus of his current research are: Defense Against Transnational Terrorism Within the Bounds of Liberal Constitutionalism, Emergency Powers, The Disappointments of Democracy and Economic Liberalization After Communism and The History of European Liberalism.

Further information:
https://www.iwm.at/