Jan-Werner Müller

What Cold War Liberalism Can Teach Us Today

If liberalism is in crisis, why are the great defenders of the “open society” such as Isaiah Berlin, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Karl Popper, and Raymond Aron so rarely invoked today?

The Bright Side of Populism?

It may be seen, in southern Europe, that protest parties play a key role in renewing democratic systems—in particular by showing that there can be real alternatives. But that presumes that such parties leave behind the temptations of both populism and technocracy.    

Homo Orbánicus

‘Orbán: Hungary’s Strongman’ by Paul Lendvai

Orbán Against Education

Is a crackdown on universities the latest addition to the increasingly sophisticated repertoire of right-wing populism?

Austria's New Populists

Austria’s Freedom Party—a party that was once described as a “party of former Nazis for former Nazis”—will have a second chance at the presidency in early October. Could Austria become the first Western European country since World War II to have a far-right president?

Germany Turns Right

Throughout its postwar history, Germany somehow managed to resist the temptations of right-wing populism. Not any longer.

Poland Swerves Right

In both Poland and Hungary the largest parties are on the right, and many losers of the transition to capitalism, who would have been a natural constituency for a proper social democratic party, have ended up supporting the more extreme version of the right on offer: the racist Jobbik party in Hungary and PiS in Poland.

Hungary: An Exchange

Dr. Réka Szemerkényi, Ambassador of Hungary to the United States, writes in response to Jan-Werner Müller’s piece “Hungary: ‘Sorry About Our Prime Minister.'”

The Hungarian Challenge

Until the refugee crisis, leading European politicians had largely turned a blind eye to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s illiberalism.