The Vanishing Democracy Club

Will Israel be Joining Hungary, Turkey, and Poland?

By Lior Akerman​​ | March, 2023

It is hard to ignore the dramatic processes being led rapidly and persistently by the new Israeli government since it was elected, despite the broad scope of the demonstrations within Israeli society, and objection voiced by most countries around the world, including the United States, Europe, and many others. All the Israeli media outlets have compared recent events in Israel to countries where similar processes have been taking place, such as Russia, Hungary, Poland, and Turkey. However, beyond the headlines, it seems that these processes have not been thoroughly examined, nor was an in-depth comparison made to discern the actual similarity between the Israeli developments and those that have occurred in said countries, particularly with regard to the final outcome, as well as its effect on the structure and conduct of the local regime. The present paper therefore seeks to compare and contrast the key steps being led by the Israeli government in recent months with those carried out primarily in Hungary, Turkey, and Poland, but also in Russia, even though the latter was never a true democracy.

Hungary and Poland are, therefore, suitable for comparison with Israel. they are both (still) defined as democracies, both are EU members, and committed to its rules on freedom and democracy requiring complete equal rights, protection of human and individual rights, complete separation of powers, an independent justice system, free press, and so on. Let us try to examine what happened in these two countries in areas such as media and law, and whether the Israeli case is indeed similar.

Hungary is being ruled by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán uninterruptedly since 2010. Since he entering office, Prime Minister Orbán has gradually taken some steps to strengthen his governance and deliberately limit some governmental characteristics of liberal democracies. Orbán has publicly stated that he strives to establish in Hungary “an illiberal state, a non-liberal democracy founded on a national, particular approach”. During the pandemic, a state of emergency was declared in Hungary, during which Orbán ruled by force of orders which he could issue with no approval or discussion. The law allowed him to extend the state of emergency at his discretion, thus leading to it having been canceled and extended several times at the government’s discretion since then. In light of these developments, human right organizations no longer define the Hungarian government as a democracy, whereas the EU has stated that Hungary has ceased to be a democracy, and is now an electoral autocracy.

A review of developments in Hungarian media reveals that, in 2011, the Hungarian government passed the Media Law, whereby all broadcasting outlets were required to provide “balanced news coverage”, determined as such by a government-controlled committee. Anyone breaking the law was heavily fined, and all media outlets were under harsh and continuous pressure to align themselves with the government. Hungarian news website Atlatszo monitored the law’s success from the Hungarian government’s point of view, and discovered that, while in 2015 the number of pro-government media outlets was 31, in 2019 it grew to over 500. During this time, prominent outlets identified with the opposition were shut down, whereas those that cooperated with the government were given various privileges, such as exclusive participation in tenders, avoidance of various regulatory requirements to which other media outlets were subject, and generous publicity offered by government agencies.

A review of changes in legislature shows the Hungarian government performing a series of revolutionary steps. A new constitution was formulated, and laws passed that strengthen the ruling party’s power, as well as its control over parliament, at the opposition parties’ expense. Although the Hungarian judiciary is considered independent officially, its head and only authority was appointed by the prime minister. Several legal organizations have examined Hungary’s justice system over the years, and have reported an unusually striking number of relatives and government cronies being appointed to various positions. Equality as a value has, in effect, been abolished, and legislature has been harsher toward specific populations, such as the LGBTQ community. Moreover, in 2018, the Hungarian government decided to set up a new justice system alongside the existing one. This new judiciary is headed by the minister of justice, who is solely responsible for appointing its judges, and is tasked with public administration, election laws, and government corruption. Orbán has also appointed two of his supporters as head of public defense and state comptroller.

A review of economic developments shows that the agency overseeing economic activity in Hungary has been subordinated directly to the ruling party, thereby completing the series of steps that have led to its complete overtaking of all local media outlets, judiciary, parliament, and economic system. Hungary’s score on the world democracy index is now extremely low, and it is on the verge of being defined a totalitarian state. The EU no longer funds it, and it has declined significantly financially, leading to the legislation of laws imposing higher corporate tax in an effort to finance the state budget. Hungary’s economic figures are far from encouraging: on GDP per capita, human development and Gini indexes, it ranks extremely low compared to all western countries; its inflation is soaring; and the EU prohibits it from transitioning to Euro.

Poland has undergone similar processes during this time. The ruling party, led by Mateusz Morawiecki, has passed a series of laws designed to anchor its status, and although elections are still being held there, it is no longer defined a democracy by the EU. Government cronies have been appointed to head all government agencies, and the Polish judiciary is controlled by one man who serves as both prosecutor general and minister of justice, while also being the only authority on position-assigning and conduct of Poland’s justice system. In view of these developments, the EU has stopped transferring funding to Poland, and imposed strict sanctions that remain valid to this day. In addition, the government has taken over the country’s main media outlets and key economic apparatuses, as well as the justice system, central bank, and state comptroller’s office. Nevertheless, Poland is still not perceived by the EU as irregular, unlike Hungary, and has managed to keep its relatively high ranking on the various economic world indexes.

Turkey has been under Erdogan’s rule as president since 2014, or, in effect, since he took office as prime minister in 2003. The constitutional change performed by Erdogan has turned Turkey (or Türkiye, as it prefers to be called) from a parliamentarian democracy into a presidential republic in which all ruling power is held by the president. Over his years of presidency, Erdogan has taken the same exact actions. He completely overtook the media, abolished the judiciary’s independence and subordinated it to the government, took over the entire economic system while setting new rules to govern it, as well as neutralized the power of parliament and the opposition parties. The economic repercussions were soon felt, and Turkey’s financial state of affairs has been on the decline for some years now. It currently ranks very low on all economic indexes compared to other world countries.

Russia has been under Putin’s rule for many years, and identical steps have been taken by him during his term in office. The constitution was changed, the president’s status as omnipotent leader whose power and presidential term are unlimited was anchored, the judiciary’s independence was abolished, all media outlets that did not support the government were neutralized, and all potential oppositional forces in Russia removed, while parliament’s status and role were effectively nullified. Its financial state of affairs needs no describing. Inflation is peaking, the Ruble has taken a nosedive, the Russian banking system’s ties with the global banking system have been severed, trade has been stopped, as has all foreign investing, and Russia has fallen to extremely low positions on all economic indexes.

When the actions taken in all these countries are reviewed and compared to recent developments in Israel, a very worrying conclusion emerges. In Israel, much like Hungary, Poland, Russia, and Turkey, the government is taking steps against media outlets that criticize it, seeking to shut them down, while encouraging and promoting those that do support government policies. As in Turkey, Hungary, Poland, and Russia, the Israeli government is attempting to take over the justice system, neutralize its power, and turn it into a part of the government by appointing government supporters to all key positions. In Israel too, as in all other countries reviewed, the government is actively seeking to strengthen the ruling party and its leader’s status by significantly weakening the power of parliament, and its ability to impact the government. In Israel too the government is taking measures to take over key economic apparatuses and positions to prevent its actions from being criticized, and allow it to legislate laws as it deems fit. Unsurprisingly, in Israel, as in all the countries mentioned, a significant gap and continuous decline in the economic state of affairs is beginning to form as investors flee, money is taken out of the country, the Shekel takes a nosedive, and government, economic and legal officials in both the U.S. and EU threaten to discontinue their political and financial partnership with Israel.

Thus, a practical comparison clearly reveals that the processes currently being promoted in Israel are identical to those that have been led in recent years by the heads of Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and Russia. The purpose of these actions was to weaken the democratic regime, strengthen governance and the status of the ruling party as well as its leader, weaken the justice system and media, as well as alter the structure of the regime, turning it from a parliamentarian democracy into a centralized autocracy, and allowing the ruler limitless power and term. A close examination of recent history will show that, surprisingly, the Nazi Party in Germany was elected during a completely democratic election campaign, and proceeded to carry out the very same actions by way of anchoring its status, and that of its leader, as sole rulers, thereby neutralizing all local legal, governmental and media systems. The outcome of that particular historical development is unfortunately and painfully known to all.

Authored by Lior Akerman, Senior Fellow, Institute for Policy and Strategy (IPS), Reichman University.

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