Early consolidation and performance crisis: The majoritarian-consensus democracy debate in Hungary

The current period of early consolidation has been a turning point in East- Central European democratisation. It has provoked, however a majoritarian-c onsensual debate, first of all in Hungary, as is discussed in this article in a shorter theoretical and in a longer 'empirical' part. The introduction deals with the conceptual framework, followed by its application as a Hung arian case study, in an East-Central European context. It is argued that Hu ngary may be the model for the competing conceptions of democracy in politi cal practice, since (i) an extended version of consensual democracy was est ablished in the early 1990s but opposed by the first government; (ii) there was an attempt by the second government to complete consensual democracy b ut it failed; (iii) an abrupt turn it-as made towards majoritarian democrac y in the late 1990s by the third government. In Hungary there has been a lo ng debate on majoritarian versus consensual democracy, involving politician s, experts and the general public. Finally, some broad conclusions can be d rawn about the troubles of the young democracies.