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• The Effects of the 2011 Electoral Reform on the Results of the Hungarian Legislative Elections II. –: Empirical Analysis

  89-111

  Levente Nagy

  Views:

  50

  A radical electoral reform took place in Hungray in 2011, as a consequence of the sweeping
  victory of the Fidesz-KDNP coalition in 2010. The government initiated and implimented
  a reform which was not based on a consensus of all political parties. Taking advantage of its
  political position (qualified majority government), Fidesz introduced among other changes the
  winer compensation, and gave voting right to non-resident Hungarians. The present paper tries
  to present some of the value-based and interest-oreinted arguments related to the reform of
  2011, showing that the real (power) interests were hushed up, while the government tried to
  legitimize the electoral reform based on several value-oriented arguments.

• Mobilization incongruence in the Hungarian local electioms

  5-24

  Views:

  10

  In 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.

• The 2019 local elections in Szeged

  52-66

  Views:

  12

  The 2019 local, municipal election outclasses the second-order elections in the given political constellation. This is especially true in the case of Szeged, where the opposition – unlike the situation at the national level – has the power for a long time. To change this situation, the governing parties, taking advantage of their dominant position – and using all means – conducted a very vigorous campaign, changing the city into a battlefield. According to the results, the governemt’s attempt was not successfull, it was rather contraproductive. The reigning mayor and city management won an unprecedented victory. The root cause of it is a special urban policy which extracted the local politics from the partyfights and overrode party interests, and which represented the interests of the city succesfully and with credibility even against cross-wind. Based on the cooperation of the entire opposition the implemented urban policy is symbolized by and embodied in the person of the mayor in office since 2002.