In this important new book, Drinóczi and Bien-Kacała explore recent constitutional
changes in Hungary and Poland and provide valuable insights into the
nature and origins of these developments, and how they should be conceptualized
within the broader comparative constitutional literature.
Both Hungary and Poland, the authors suggest, have witnessed a sustained
attack on a range of independent oversight bodies, including courts, and a retreat
from liberal commitments to inclusion, openness, and transnational engagement.
Yet, according to the authors, neither country has descended into full-scale
authoritarianism, or a wholly arbitrary system of government. Each retains some
commitment to limited government through adherence to national and European
legal norms, or at least a partial willingness to apply and implement EU law. Drinóczi
and Bien-Kacała thus suggest that these systems are neither wholly constitutionally
democratic nor wholly authoritarian in character, but rather a form of hybrid regime.
They label the current model of government in Hungary and Poland as “illiberal
constitutional” in nature.