From Democratic to Authoritarian Populism: Comparing Pre- and Post-2010 Hungarian Pension Policies*

Zoltán Ádám; András Simonovits

doi:10.1556/032.2019.69.3.2

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Acta Oeconomica

Volume/Issue:: Volume 69: Issue 3

From Democratic to Authoritarian Populism: Comparing Pre- and Post-2010 Hungarian Pension Policies *

Authors:

Zoltán Ádám

Zoltán Ádám
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András Simonovits

András Simonovits
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Pages:: 333–355

Online Publication Date:: Jul 2019

Publication Date:: 01 Jul 2019

Article Category:: Journal Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1556/032.2019.69.3.2

Keywords:: public pension systems; private pension systems; pension policy; authoritarian populism; democratic populism; Hungary; H55; J26; P16; P48

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We compare the pre- and post-2010 Hungarian political regimes through the lens of pension policies. We label the pre-2010 regime as democratic populist because it was characterized by fiscally irresponsible policies, yet it maintained the system of checks and balances and the rule of law. In contrast, we call the post-2010 regime authoritarian populist as it has employed authoritarian political techniques while maintained popular legitimation through regular elections. To substantiate the difference between the two periods from an economic viewpoint, we compare pre- and post-2010 pension policies to find important differences as well as surprising similarities. In particular, we analysed the following five policy aspects: (a) reform and partial privatization of the government-run pension system, (b) policies on the statutory (normal) and the effective (average) pension age, (c) indexation, (d) progression in benefits calculations and progressivity in the personal income tax, and (e) contribution rates. Based on ideological preferences, we argue that one would expect the pension system to become financially more sustainable but less redistributive after 2010 in comparison to the preceding period. Yet, we find that although pro-poor redistribution through the pension system has indeed been curtailed, fiscal sustainability has not improved due to the erratic policies.

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Acta Oeconomica Periodical of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Print ISSN:: 0001-6373

Online ISSN:: 1588-2659

Associate Editors

Péter Benczúr, Joint Joint Research Center, European Commission
Dóra Benedek, International Monetary Fund
Balázs Égert, OECD
Dániel Prinz, World Bank
Rok Spruk, University of Ljubljana, School of Economics and Business, Slovenia

Editorial Board

Anders Åslund, Georgetown University and Advisory Council of CASE, USA
István Benczes, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
Fabrizio Coricelli, University of Siena, Italy
László Csaba, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary and Central European University, Austria
Beáta Farkas, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Szeged, Hungary
Péter Halmai, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and National University of Public Service, Hungary
Martin Kahanec, Central European University, Austria
Michael Landesmann, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW), Austria
Péter Mihályi, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Debora Revoltella, European Investment Bank

Corvinus University of Budapest
Department of Economics
Fővám tér 8 Budapest, H-1093, Hungary
E-mail: judit.kalman@uni-corvinus.hu

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2023
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CiteScore	1.4
CiteScore rank	Q3 (Economics and Econometrics)
SNIP	0.385
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Acta Oeconomica
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Acta Oeconomica
Language	English
Size	B5
Year of Foundation	1966
Volumes per Year	1
Issues per Year	4
Founder	Magyar Tudományos Akadémia
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ISSN	0001-6373 (Print)
ISSN	1588-2659 (Online)