Deliberation as a Remedy for the Democratic Malaise? The Attitudes of Opposition Politicians and Party Members in Hungary

In Hungary the last decade marks the entry on the political arena of many newly emerged parties. The opposition and newly emerged parties seek alternatives for citizens’ engagement outside the representative system that produced the same winner in the last decade. The article examines whether elected representatives and members of parties in opposition have congruent preferences for deliberation. Using interviews and survey data conducted during the first and second wave of the pandemic in Hungary with several hundred party members and with members of the parliament the paper aims answer to the question how politicians and party members see deliberation in Hungary? The article found that increasing the number of deliberative events at local level is the most supported reform direction both among party members and politicians.