Papers by Kristof Szombati
The Revolt of the Provinces, 2018
Magyar Tudomány
Az elmúlt évek tapasztalatai azt mutatják, hogy Kelet-Európában, és különösképpen Magyarországon,... more Az elmúlt évek tapasztalatai azt mutatják, hogy Kelet-Európában, és különösképpen Magyarországon, a társadalmi és politikai status quóval szembeni lázadás egyik módja a szegények érdemtelenekre és érdemesekre való felosztása. Ennek a folyamatnak meghatározó része az érdemtelenek rasszizálása és elidegenítése a társadalom rasszjegyektől jelöletlen részétől; továbbá az érdemes szegények kulturális, historizáló keretek közötti felértékelése. Esettanulmányunkban azokat a társadalmi körülményeket és gazdasági viszonyokat vizsgáljuk, amelyek a rasszizált szegények kizárására épülő beszédmódot és politikát elfogadhatóvá tették.
The Far Right in Government: Six Cases From Across Europe, 2018
Europe-Asia Studies , 2021
This essay analyses the consolidation of authoritarian rule in Hungary by focusing attention on t... more This essay analyses the consolidation of authoritarian rule in Hungary by focusing attention on the ruling party’s workfare programme, which has become the cornerstone of rural poverty governance. It is argued, on the basis of ethnographic research carried out by the author and the secondary literature, that workfare successfully tamed the angry politics born out of the dislocations caused by neoliberal restructuring. It consolidated post-peasant hegemonies by tying the ‘deserving poor’ into clientelistic relations with mayors. This ‘illiberal paternalism’ constitutes an alternative to neoliberal regimes of poverty governance.
Social Anthropology, 2021
Magyar Tudomány, 2018
By a qualitative case study this paper offers social and economic explanations of the success of ... more By a qualitative case study this paper offers social and economic explanations of the success of the populist far-right on the local level. We present how reframing of poverty, creating the social
distinction between two categories of the poor – the racialization of underserving and the culturalization of deserving poor – becomes part of this political process.
Az elmúlt évek tapasztalatai azt mutatják, hogy Kelet-Európában, és különösképpen Magyarországon, a társadalmi és politikai status quóval szembeni lázadás egyik módja a szegények érdemtelenekre és érdemesekre való felosztása. Ennek a folyamatnak meghatározó része az érdemtelenek rasszizálása és elidegenítése a társadalom rasszjegyektől jelöletlen részétől; továbbá az érdemes szegények kulturális, historizáló keretek közötti felértékelése. Esettanulmányunkban
azokat a társadalmi körülményeket és gazdasági viszonyokat vizsgáljuk, amelyek a rasszizált szegények kizárására épülő beszédmódot és politikát elfogadhatóvá tették.
Rupture Magazine, 2019
In this article we seek to shed light on the decline of labour politics in Hungary,, which has be... more In this article we seek to shed light on the decline of labour politics in Hungary,, which has been laid bare in a particularly stark manner by the failure of the ‘slave law’ protests and the Left’s dismal electoral performance at the last European parliamentary elections. We focus on political-economic processes that played out over a longer period of time: the generation of working-class discontents under the auspices of a neoliberal Left, the gradual fragmentation of labour in a dualised dependent economy, the rearticulation of working-class solidarities in the idiom of the nation and the subsequent incorporation of some popular demands into ‘illiberal’ politics. Our endeavour to theorise the demise of labour – and more broadly: class politics – we rely on the work of Karl Polanyi and more particularly his conceptualisation of the ‘double movement’ through which he sought to grasp the process whereby society reacts to the vicissitudes of marketisation. Elsewhere, we have demonstrated that Polanyi’s theory can be adapted to the context of contemporary financialised capitalism on Europe’s Eastern periphery and its usefulness for highlighting the tensions of postsocialist capitalist democracies. We combine Polanyi’s framework with neo-Gramscian political economy and power structure theory to describe the power blocs that compete to take control of the state and their strategies vis-à-vis capital and labour. To substantiate our theoretical narrative, we rely on empirical research we carried out over the last five years, as well as the existing literature. First, we outline the process whereby labour relations became disembedded during Hungary’s re-integration into the global capitalist economy under neoliberal governments. We then describe Fidesz’s strategy of authoritarian re-embedding, which combines pre-emptive repression with authoritarian populism, allowing the hegemonic ruling party to incorporate workers while neutralising discontents. We end by arguing that these processes have created a structural trap for labour politics.
Chapter published in the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung's publication (2018) THE FAR RIGHT IN GOVERNMENT... more Chapter published in the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung's publication (2018) THE FAR RIGHT IN GOVERNMENT: Six Cases From Across Europe, pp. 9-18.
Hall's insistence on 'authoritarian populism' as a vehicle for generating electoral support for r... more Hall's insistence on 'authoritarian populism' as a vehicle for generating electoral support for right-wing political projects is particularly important for understanding the consolidation of neo-liberal hegemony in Eastern Europe where politicians have idealized the principle of 'work' as the cornerstone of the new moral economy. In this paper I draw on Hall's conceptualization and my previous research on the rise of political anti-Gypsyism in Hungary to reflect on the ascendance of a new brand of politics to positions of governmental power. I begin by elucidating the political and economic underpinnings of the electorate's radicalization in a rightist direction and then show how the main right-wing party modified its ideological platform and political strategy to harness this energy and take the wind out of the sails of the extremist-racist Jobbik party, which by espousing anti-Gypsyism had successfully established itself as the voice of the abandoned countryside. While Hall interpreted the success of the conservative party in terms of hegemonic ideas of freedom from the state, I show that the electoral success of conservatives turned national-populists in Hungary partially hinged on their offer to transform the neo-liberal state in an anti-egalitarian direction with a view to rewarding 'worthy' citizens. Once in government, national-populists centralized state power to reinforce the positions of the bourgeoisie whose representative felt squeezed 'from above' by cosmopolitan elites and 'from below' by the dangerous classes. I show that contrary to expectations, 'authoritarian statist' politics is difficult to consolidate and begins to threaten liberal rule within the core of 'homogeneous society'. I nevertheless argue that this re-emergent 'extremism of the center' should not (yet) be seen as leading to Fascism, mainly because it does not seek to transcend the class conflict but to reinforce class privileges and safeguard bourgeois class rule. I close my analysis by suggesting that authoritarian statism appear to offer a workable model for advancing rightist hegemony on the EU's semi-periphery.
This paper analyses the reconfiguration of social relations in rural Hungary after the collapse o... more This paper analyses the reconfiguration of social relations in rural Hungary after the collapse of socialism as well as the cultural idioms in which these changes were interpreted in order to unearth the connection between structural transformation, the re-articulation of ethnic and peasant traditions and the discourse on Roma as a threat to communal harmony. The locality in the focus of our case study is a village that played a major role in the rise of the far-right Jobbik party. By applying an ethnographic approach, we seek to uncover structural forces, discourses and agencies that help explain the success of the anti-Roma mobilization campaign that ended with Jobbik’s electoral victory.
The Routledge Handbook of European Criminology, 2010
The Roma constitute the biggest ethnic minority in Central and Eastern Europe. Originating from I... more The Roma constitute the biggest ethnic minority in Central and Eastern Europe. Originating from India, they have been living in this region for many hundred years. While there have been historical periods when Roma groups were better integrated in economic and social frameworks and enjoyed a relatively stable social standing, today their predicament is mostly characterized by social marginalization and poverty. This dire, often hopeless economic situation also strongly shapes everyday Roma culture. Although Roma groups, especially those residing on the territory of the former Habsburg Empire, have 'travelled' through a process of forced cultural assimilation (and therefore tend to speak the language of the majority and to follow its religion), their circumstances and lifestyle, characterized by the contested notion of the 'culture of poverty', differentiates them from members of the ethnic majority.
politika a magyar társadalomban.
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Papers by Kristof Szombati
distinction between two categories of the poor – the racialization of underserving and the culturalization of deserving poor – becomes part of this political process.
Az elmúlt évek tapasztalatai azt mutatják, hogy Kelet-Európában, és különösképpen Magyarországon, a társadalmi és politikai status quóval szembeni lázadás egyik módja a szegények érdemtelenekre és érdemesekre való felosztása. Ennek a folyamatnak meghatározó része az érdemtelenek rasszizálása és elidegenítése a társadalom rasszjegyektől jelöletlen részétől; továbbá az érdemes szegények kulturális, historizáló keretek közötti felértékelése. Esettanulmányunkban
azokat a társadalmi körülményeket és gazdasági viszonyokat vizsgáljuk, amelyek a rasszizált szegények kizárására épülő beszédmódot és politikát elfogadhatóvá tették.
distinction between two categories of the poor – the racialization of underserving and the culturalization of deserving poor – becomes part of this political process.
Az elmúlt évek tapasztalatai azt mutatják, hogy Kelet-Európában, és különösképpen Magyarországon, a társadalmi és politikai status quóval szembeni lázadás egyik módja a szegények érdemtelenekre és érdemesekre való felosztása. Ennek a folyamatnak meghatározó része az érdemtelenek rasszizálása és elidegenítése a társadalom rasszjegyektől jelöletlen részétől; továbbá az érdemes szegények kulturális, historizáló keretek közötti felértékelése. Esettanulmányunkban
azokat a társadalmi körülményeket és gazdasági viszonyokat vizsgáljuk, amelyek a rasszizált szegények kizárására épülő beszédmódot és politikát elfogadhatóvá tették.