Weimarisation

Politicians have several times warned that there could be a "Weimarisation" of the postsocialist region, including Hungary. It should be remembered that it was mass unemployment and waves of inflation in Weimar Germany that led to mass disillusionment and rejection of the institutions of democracy and the parliamentary system. This economically-induced disillusionment provides a fertile breeding ground for demagogy, cheap promises and desires for iron-handed leadership.

1995, János Kornai, “Transformational Recession: The Example of Hungary”, in Christopher T[homas] Saunders, editor, Eastern Europe in Crisis and the Way Out (European Economic Interaction and Integration; 15), Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Press in association with the Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies, →ISBN, page 58; republished [London]: Macmillan in association with Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, →DOI, →ISBN, part I (Stabilisation Policies Assessed), page 58

If the strength of this discontent reaches a certain threshold, that could bring dangers to the new Hungarian democracy … we have to defend ourselves from Weimarisation in the political and ideological spheres … we also need to draw the necessary conclusions in economic policy.

1998, László Andor, Martin Summers, Market Failure: A Guide to the East European “Economic Miracle”, London: Pluto Press, →ISBN, page 146

The ‘Weimarisation of Europe’ staged in the German and international press seems to correspond to a simultaneous affirmation that all European citizens are members of the same community, ‘in precisely the same way [as] the modern bourgeoisie [sees] its non-earning members’ [...].

2015, Giulia Palladini, “The Weimar Republic and Its Return: Unemployment, Revolution, or Europe in a State of Schuld”, in Marilena Zaroulia, Philip Hager, editors, Performances of Capitalism, Crises and Resistance: Inside/Outside Europe, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, part I (Returns)