Sociology in the grip of two forces: Marketization and the political restriction of academic freedom in Hungary

Along with the autocratization of the Orbán regime since the mid-2010s, sociology in Hungary has once again come under pressure, echoing earlier conflicts before the democratic transition of 1989–1990. At the same time, global trends affecting academia, such as competitiveness, marketization, and the commercial practices of academic publishing, have been intensified and strategically instrumentalized by the regime. This paper examines how the marketization of academia intertwined with the consolidation of an autocratizing political order in Hungary. Using a process tracing approach, it analyzes how discursive attacks on the social sciences and institutional restructuring jointly constrained academic freedom. The paper also explores how researchers and their professional communities responded to the dual pressures of neoliberal tendencies and an autocratizing regime. In seeking political and economic autonomy, sociologists often turn to the opportunities offered by marketization and internationalization. Yet these same processes may weaken collective resistance to the neoliberal transformation of academia. The Hungarian case demonstrates that in autocratizing regimes academic freedom may be threatened not only through direct political intervention but also through state-supported marketization.