IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/nonpfo/v12y2021i1p93-126n12.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Civil Society and COVID-19 in Hungary: The Complete Annexation of Civil Space

Author

Listed:
  • Kövér Ágnes

    (Institute of Social Studies, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary)

  • Antal Attila

    (Institute of Political Science, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary)

  • Deák Izabella

    (Doctoral School, Debreceni Egyetem, Debrecen, Hungary)

Abstract

The paper examines the CSOs – government relations during the COVID-19 pandemic, first introducing how the pandemic affected the already authoritarian regime in Hungary and how this regime utilized the epidemic to extend and fortify its power. Then the paper presents the antecedents of the relationship between civil society and government in the frame of the National System of Cooperation (NSC). This relationship is unilaterally dominated by the government, and it may appear as a “4C strategy”: Cooptation, Coercion, Crowding out, Creation (the creation of a new, loyal civil society). Exploring the civil society and government relations during the pandemic, the study will conclude that there was no government attempt to coordinate the activities of CSOs or to try to harmonize sectoral cooperation from a broader perspective. The occurrences demonstrated the explosion of solidarity and the carnival of solidarity. These forms of solidarity, however, remain informal and leave deepening structural problems untouched. The paper presents the results of an empirical research which was conducted between March and September of 2020. The nodal points of the research include the resilience and flexibility of the organizations, their efforts to assist during the emergency and lockdown, as well as the issues of networking and the nature of their relations with the national and local authorities.

Suggested Citation

  • Kövér Ágnes & Antal Attila & Deák Izabella, 2021. "Civil Society and COVID-19 in Hungary: The Complete Annexation of Civil Space," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 93-126, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:nonpfo:v:12:y:2021:i:1:p:93-126:n:12
    DOI: 10.1515/npf-2020-0060
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/npf-2020-0060
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/npf-2020-0060?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Solava Ibrahim & David Hulme, 2010. "Has civil society helped the poor? - A review of the roles and contributions of civil society to poverty reduction?," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 11410, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leonard, David K. & Bloom, Gerald & Hanson, Kara & O’Farrell, Juan & Spicer, Neil, 2013. "Institutional Solutions to the Asymmetric Information Problem in Health and Development Services for the Poor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 71-87.
    2. Spicer, Neil & Harmer, Andrew & Aleshkina, Julia & Bogdan, Daryna & Chkhatarashvili, Ketevan & Murzalieva, Gulgun & Rukhadze, Natia & Samiev, Arnol & Walt, Gill, 2011. "Circus monkeys or change agents? Civil society advocacy for HIV/AIDS in adverse policy environments," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(12), pages 1748-1755.
    3. Niraj Prasad Koirala & Dhiroj Prasad Koirala, 2016. "Poverty and Inequality across the Nations: How Can Governments be Effective in Coping?," Economy, Asian Online Journal Publishing Group, vol. 3(1), pages 24-30.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:nonpfo:v:12:y:2021:i:1:p:93-126:n:12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.