Internal Exclusion,External Inclusion: Diaspora Politics and Party-Building Strategies in Post-Communist Hungary

Abstract

This article examines the domestic politics behind Hungary’s controversial 2001 “Status Law,” which granted special cultural and economic benefits to ethnic Hungarians who are citizens of other states. It argues that Hungary’s increasingly interventionist policy toward ethnic Hungarians beyond its borders in the late 1990s was driven not by a growing sense of ethnic nationalism in society or as a reaction to the plight of ethnic kin but by the party-building strategy of right-wing elites. These elites utilized and co-opted transnational ties with the diaspora to further their own political goals. Specifically, engagement with the diaspora issue provided the then-governing Federation of Young Democrats (FIDESZ) government with symbolically charged ideological content, important organizational resources, and the basis of a longer-term strategy for governance and institutional embeddedness.