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Presence and plebiscitary representation: Representative performances of Viktor Orbán and Péter Magyar in the 2024 election campaign
39-67Views:277The study examines the interactions of meaning effects and presence effects in the mass events of Viktor Orbán and Péter Magyar in the 2024 election campaign, attempting to show that the performances of both leaders can be interpreted as forms of plebiscitary representation, although there are also substantial differences between them (for example, in the degree of asymmetry of the representative relationship and the palette of leader-follower interactions). The text argues that such an analysis, blending traditional aspects of representational claims analysis with ethnographic method, can help to shed light on a blind spot in contemporary performative approaches to representation: the corporeal-material aspects of performativity. Plebiscitary representation, in which a unified mass acclaiming a leader plays a key role, is a particularly suitable context for demonstrating the importance of presence-effects in the constitutive process of representation.
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Mobilization incongruence in the Hungarian local electioms
5-24Views:128In local elections, national voting patterns are often not repeated as results show significant incongruence in terms of turnout, party performance and seat shares. Political science explains these various differences with several distinct theoretical frameworks that approach this incongruence from the aspect of voter behavior. The aim of this study is not to provide an alternative for these conventional explanations but to complement them with the detailed analysis of mobilization in an attempt to clear up certain gaps in the models. My main proposition is that parties can mobilize their supporters for the local elections with differing effectiveness producing incongruence in voter turnout and seat shares. In the capital and in the larger cities there is a mobilization gap mainly affecting left-wing voters that causes lower turnout and weaker electoral performance by these parties. This gap can most probably be explained by a combination of social and institutional factors and has a profound effect on election outcomes.
