Illiberal challenges to mainstream public management research: Hungary as an exemplary case

The apparently successful early years of post-transition democratization and consolidation of Hungary’s system of governance gave space, increasingly, to a remarkable fatigue and stagnation of the post-accession years. This was the starting point of the genuine and drastic transformation of governance and of the entirety of state–society relations having taken place since 2010. The article argues that Hungary’s public management landscape is dominated by this grand illiberal transformation; that the significance of this transformation extends well beyond the region; and that this significance is not only practical but poses true challenges to mainstream theorizing in public management, too.