Community Building against Illiberalism The Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party’s Organizational Structure as a Counter Weapon of the Hybrid Regime

Abstract

The Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party (MKKP) in the last few years has become an integrated part of the Hungarian party system. Meanwhile, the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz is building a hybrid regime (or illiberal democracy, or plebiscitary leader democracy, etc.) and narrowing the space around the independent institutions and the civil sector. The Hungarian opposition parties fall to satellite party position, but the Hungarian Two-Tailed Party is the only party which is capable of gaining voters (except the far-right Our Country Movement). This research would like to highlight the MKKP’s organizational structure through Peter Mair’s and Richard Katz's “three faces” theory. This theory claims that the parties have more separable parts “faces”: the party on the ground which means the activist and local organizations, the party in public office which means party members who are public servants, and the party in the central office which is to say the leadership of the party. The paper considers the MKKP as a movement party therefore their connection with the civil society is stronger than other parties. Moreover, their organization building is based on collective action and community building, therefore their activist community is well built thereby the political apathy (which is a common circumstance on the opposition side after their huge failure in the last election) not influencing the MKKP. Thus we can say the MKKP is one of the previous political organizations that can mobilize voters meanwhile could represent the interests of civil society.