ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Hungary profiles of longstanding democracies and of the European Union, and provides essential detail on history, electoral system, political parties and cleavages, and governments. Historically Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and largely autonomous after 1867. Independent after World War One, interwar Hungary was authoritarian. Despite various reforms, the 1988–1989 period was one of communist decay and the rise of the opposition, leading to the first multi-party election in 1990. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004. Hungary has always had a complicated, tiered electoral system, which can either be described as mixed-member partially compensatory or mixed-member majoritarian as it is clearly biased in favour of the largest party. Unlike many of its post-communist neighbours, Hungary skipped the umbrella movement stage and went straight to a viable party system. However, a relatively low number of voters actually identified with a particular party, and there were usually a high percentage of undecided voters leading up to elections.
