The Special Relationship: National Conservatism in the US, Illiberalism in Hungary, and a New Right-Wing Hegemony

A paradoxically growing global network of self-branded right-wing “anti-globalists” and “illiberal nationalists” has been emerging to hegemonic heights within global conservative circles. Not only are right-wing politicians and parties exclaiming to counter neoliberal globalization getting more popular within the right or in general, but they are also forming a growing international platform. This network’s discursive rejection of neoliberalism and globalization is at least a narrative break from the previously hegemonic Reaganite-Thatcherite neoconservative consensus. In this paper, I take a closer look at a movement-in-the-making by analyzing Viktor Orbán and Fidesz’s ties to a faction of the US Republican Party, the “National Conservatives.” I hypothesize that an increasingly hegemonic faction within the US Republican party regards Orbán’s Hungary as a test-ground for conducting right-wing populist political campaigns and implementing increasingly authoritarian policies providing ideological and institutional support in exchange. First, I look at the interrelated self-mythologies of these movements: the narratives of anti-globalization, the importance of a strongman or “black sheep” figure, and how they legitimize their ambitions for power. Then I shortly delineate some of the ruptures and continuities between this model of hegemony and legitimacy creation using the concepts of ordonationalism (Geva, 2021) and post-fascism (Tamás, 2000) and previous neoconservative models. In the core of the paper, I conduct an institutional analysis looking at the organizational basis of this network I call the Nationalist Fusionists working on the ideological diplomacy between Fidesz and the National Conservatives. Lastly, I point out the wider implications of this movement to international political economy, more particularly, how this emerging movement might transform the second phase of neoliberalism. I aim to contribute to the literature on right-wing populist politics by looking at the dynamics of global networking between aspirant “anti-globalist” populists and the influence this network has on methods of legitimizing power.