Roads suddenly split? Power-sharing in Hungary and Poland

This article examines the transformation of the separation of powers through the experiences of Poland and Hungary. According to a widely accepted narrative, the two countries followed a parallel path of dismantling democratic safeguards between 2015 and 2023. This article revisits this period, not in order to retell a familiar story, but to highlight one particular feature: the erosion of the very idea of sharing power. It analyzes the constitutional methods that enabled the dismantling of checks and balances in these two EU member states after populist parties came to power in 2010 and 2015, respectively. The article also considers the renewed electoral success of populists in Hungary in 2022 and the aftermath of the Polish parliamentary elections in late 2023, widely seen as marking the end of the countries’ shared trajectory, leaving Hungary alone on the road to authoritarianism. Yet the legacy of the previous decade has proved more enduring than expected: while Hungary’s authoritarian transition continues, the new Polish government appears to find it convenient to govern without meaningful institutional constraints. The article concludes that classical accounts of the separation of powers—emphasizing the rise of the administrative state, judicial supremacy, or multilevel constitutionalism—fail to explain these developments. The deeper problem lies in the fact that the separated powers no longer act as separate, having been animated by a shared political purpose in service of the ruling majority.