Right-wing extremism phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe and its impact on the democratic consolidation: a comparative study between Hungary and Romania

The thesis has a two-fold purpose, first goal is to analyse what factors contribute to the emergence and downfall of right-wing extremism in Central and Eastern Europe. Second goal is to estimate the impact of right-wing extremism on the democratic consolidation based on a case study of Hungary and Romania. There are several challenges to accomplish the proposed tasks, the first challenge concerns the theoretical background. Right-wing extremism phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe suffers from a considerable lack of comprehensive academic works especially in the first stage of transition in the early 90’s. In the recent years the problematic of right-wing extremism gained more academic attention however compared to over-abundant research done in Western Europe, CEE study of the topic is significantly poorer. In order to bypass this academic inconsistency the author dedicated two chapters, the first chapter to the discussion of the main theoretical concepts of right-wing extremism. The second chapter is dedicated to highlighting the features specific to Central and Eastern European countries by analysing the similarities and differences between: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia and contrasting these findings with the developments in the Western Europe. The second challenge is of methodological order and concerns the selection of case studies and analytical framework. The author has chosen the cases of Romania and Hungary because they represent the best examples of opposite developments among all CEE countries. In Hungary right-wing extremism was initially poorly developed and emerged as considerable political force only in later stages. In contrast, Romanian development can be considered a mirror opposite of Hungary, it had a strong right-wing extremist sector in the beginning of transition period and experienced substantial decline in later stages. In order to better understand this development the term of first and second generation of extreme right actors is introduced. The parameters of definition involves external and internal factors as well as a timeframe, the first generation spanning from 90’s to early 2000’s while second generation emerged in 2000’s and continues its activity till today. The analytical framework is primarily based on qualitative research using the comparative method. The framework has two components: first component is designed to identity and compare the factors which affect right-wing extremism in Hungary and Romania. They are divided into demand-side factors which focus on political, economic, cultural and social attitudes and grievances; and supply-side factors which focus on political opportunity structures. The second component is designed to estimate the impact of right-wing extremism on democratic consolidation. The estimation is based on two level analysis: the agenda-setting level, exemplified in the ability to influence the public opinion and salience of different social issues; and policy-making level, exemplified in ability to access political resources and participate in decision-making process. The importance of the thesis stems from the fact that the paper combines a previously un-attempted methodological configuration to research right-wing extremism. There are three key points in the thesis, first it seeks to relay a comprehensive analysis of right-wing extremism in Central and Eastern Europe; second, research factors both demand-side and supply-side explanations; thirdly, the thesis proposes an analytical framework to estimate the impact of right-wing extremism on democratic consolidation based on two case studies of Romania and Hungary, which offers more explanatory content.