匈牙利的民主衰退與歐盟的治理困境：對經濟自由主義的挑戰

Hungary’s Democratic Recession and the Impasses of EU Governance: A Challenge to Economic Liberalism

匈牙利於2020 年被評比為「選舉式獨裁政體」，是歐洲聯盟成立以來，首度出現非民主的會員國。本文旨在回答以下三個研究問題：1. 為何民主衰退會發生在匈牙利此一曾經為民主轉型的模範國家中？2. 為何匈牙利的民主衰退得以持續十餘年？3. 為何歐盟干涉失敗？在運用與檢視六項民主衰退理論與三種實務解釋觀點後，本文認為政治經濟論可以解釋匈牙利民主衰退的發生與持續，而實務性的政黨利益觀點則可有效解釋歐盟干預的失敗。本文因此認為，在匈牙利的民主衰退與歐盟的治理困境中，真正棘手的問題是新經濟自由主義與威權治理兩者間的制度競賽。

Hungary was categorized as an electoral authoritarian regime in 2020. For the first time, there existed a non-democracy in the EU. This paper aims to answer three questions: First, why did democratic recession occur in a once-best per-former of democratic transition? Second, why could such democratic recession continue in Hungary for more than 10 years? Third, why did the EU fail to intervene? After examining six theories of democratic recession and three prac-tical explanations, political economy theory explained the occurrence and con-tinuation of Hungary’s democratic recession, while the partisan interest factor accounted for the EU’s ineffective interventions. This paper, accordingly, argued that the real elephant in the room in Hungary’s democratic recession and the EU’s governance impasses was the institutional competition between economic neo-liberalism and authoritarianism in delivering better economic well-being for the majority of people.