Cities against authoritarianism? : Polish and Hungarian capitals facing centralistic pressure

Abstract

The paper provides a new taxonomy of local government reactions to the recentralization policies of authoritarian central governments. By studying the capitals of two Central European countries recently undergoing an illiberal turn – Budapest and Warsaw – we have extended the list of reaction types previously identified in the literature. Moreover, the comparative nature of the research has highlighted the internal diversity of reaction types and allowed us to hypothesize on the sources of the differences between Hungary and Poland. These differences are rooted in the initial level of decentralization, municipal networking and the political and legal framework.