Orbán, Trump, and the Autocrat's Playbook

In April 2026, the world was shocked by when Péter Magyar handily defeated long-time Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán. In this episode, LCHP Assistant Director Rose Campbell speaks with legal scholar Kim Lane Scheppele about this unexpected upset after sixteen years of Orbán's autocratic regime, and what it reveals about the rise and fall of modern authoritarian regimes. Drawing on decades of research in Hungary and Eastern Europe, Scheppele explains how leaders such as Orbán, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump, among others, have used legal and constitutional mechanisms to consolidate power, weaken democratic institutions, and entrench their rule while maintaining a façade of legality. Orbán's tactics have been widely used by aspiring autocrats around the world, and his defeat throws the political future of these regimes into uncertainty.

The conversation explores how corruption, economic stagnation, independent media, and grassroots organizing ultimately contributed to Orbán’s downfall and the rise of Péter Magyar, whose campaign successfully united opposition forces and mobilized voters across Hungary. While not a progressive himself, Magyar's policies nevertheless are more centrist than Orbán’s more hardline right-wing policies. Winning the election, however, is just the beginning. As Scheppele argues, elections can remove autocrats from office seemingly against all odds, but rebuilding democratic institutions can be a years-long challenge. 

Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. She is also a faculty fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She studies the sociology of law and specializes in ethnographic and archival research on courts and public institutions. She has published over thirty articles (find them here) and her book, Legal Secrets, won Special Recognition in the Distinguished Scholarly Publication competition of the American Sociological Association as well as the Corwin Prize of the American Political Science Association.