Kim Lane Scheppele

Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University. She has worked on Hungarian constitutional law since the 1990s and is the author of the 2022 Journal of Democracy essay “How Viktor Orbán Wins.”

How Viktor Orbán Loses

Opposition leader Péter Magyar overcame the rigged system that Orbán created and used it against him. The old playbook of disinformation and dirty tricks was no match for a disciplined campaign that gave Hungarians their voice.

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July 2022, Volume 33, Issue 3

How Viktor Orbán Wins

The case of Hungary shows how autocrats can rig elections legally, using legislative majorities to change the law and neutralize the opposition at every turn, no matter what strategy they adopt.