Pe'ter Bauer on Hungarian populism

In Hungary, a referendum held last Sunday in which government reforms of the health and education systems were rejected is being described as a step backwards. Economist Peter Bauer is even more pessimistic. He sees the referendum as a consequence of the populism of the last decade: "Until now we thought we were living in a parliamentary democracy, but we must have been mistaken. The voters can reverse decisions made by the parliament they themselves elected whenever they come at a price. ... The referendum is not only a step backwards: we've lost an entire decade and also the hope of creating a more pragmatic and just country in the near future. The opposition has managed to generate such intense feelings of anti-capitalism and anti-competition and revive the idea of the strong state that takes care of anything, that now Hungary cannot fail to lag behind other countries in the region."

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