Hungary's Orbán Model Shows Five Core Tactics Autocrats Use to Dismantle Democracy

What was said

"You had political parties who come to power with the explicit idea that they will alter the system in order to make sure that they can stay in forever. The pioneer of this idea was Viktor Orbán in Hungary. He was elected legitimately with a big margin, and then what he did was slowly seek to capture the state."

Applebaum outlined how legitimately elected leaders systematically dismantle democracies through five tactics: corruption, election manipulation, civil service capture, information control, and monopolizing violence. She identified Hungary's Viktor Orbán as the pioneer of this modern authoritarian playbook, which she argues Trump and allies are now importing to the United States. The conversation detailed how Orbán used a two-thirds parliamentary majority to repeatedly alter Hungary's constitution to guarantee electoral advantages.