Continuity or disruption?: Changing elites and the emergence of cronyism after the Great Recession: the case of Hungary

Abstract

After a short theoretical overview about the interplay between institutions and elites, the paper analyses the economic performance operationalized by the GDP and the quality of governance in Hungary in comparative perspective, considering two milestones, namely, the impact of the Great Recession, and the change of government in 2010. The role of elites and elite moves are revealed in these developments. In Hungary, the local crisis started before the Great Recession as the slide of the quality of governance and mismanagement of the economic policy can be observed since the accession to the EU. The paper elaborates the disruptive nature of the system built after 2010 with a special focus to the schemes of corruption and cronyism. Finally, the paper confronts the political elite’s endeavors with some perceptions of the population.