Kim Lane Scheppele

On walls, pillars and billboards across Budapest, the far-right Jobbik party has plastered the face of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and assorted cronies above a simple slogan: "They Steal." Corruption has been an increasingly salient feature of Orban's rule, but the heist most recently contemplated by Orban and his Fidesz party, which dominates Hungary's parliament, is an unusual one: They want to steal a university...In an email interview, Kim Lane Scheppele, a Princeton University professor who has studied Hungary's constitutional transition from communism, provides some context. "Since summer 2015, Orban has been demonizing George Soros and blaming the refugee crisis on him. Orban has argued that the refugee crisis is Soros’s way of guaranteeing pluralism in Europe because Soros doesn’t support the current government’s defense of Christian Hungary."

...Hungarian lawmakers on Tuesday approved a fast-track amendment to Hungary’s higher education act that tightens the rules for foreign registered universities, most notably CEU — or “Soros University” as some ministers call it...Kim Lane Scheppele, professor of international affairs at Princeton University in the US, says the amendment illustrated the ruling Fidesz party’s longstanding suspicion of academic independence, citing reforms in 2011 that granted the government power to appoint rectors of most universities. “CEU was the last untouched university in Hungary, it was only a matter of time before the government came for them,” she says.

From the Philippines to Britain, 2016 was a year of political shake-ups, with voters in several countries across the globe ushering populist candidates or policies into office to combat inequality and "politics as usual," often highlighting corruption in the "insider" system they opposed. But in the push to reform their countries, such politicians can play a role in further corrupting government offices, a new report cautions, leading to continued social disparities and decreased transparency...“We’re seeing a wave of voter anger sweeping across a lot of democratic systems,” Kim Lane Scheppele, a sociology and international affairs professor at Princeton University, tells the Monitor.

In his first two weeks in office, President Donald Trump's "America First" pledge has proven more than an idle slogan. In word and deed, the White House has signaled an aggressive unilateral stance toward the world that's antagonized allies abroad and divided supporters at home. Trump's orders barring travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, temporarily halted in part by courts after sparking confusion and chaos at airports, were an exclamation point. In his short time in office, he's also defended the use of torture, tossed out the Trans-Pacific Partnership, demanded Mexico pay for a border wall, and threatened to withdraw from NAFTA, the sweeping hemispheric trade deal, if he can't renegotiate its terms..."Treating the system like its optional, or that it doesn't have any important function at the moment, is more dangerous than trying to destroy it deliberately," Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of international affairs at Princeton University, said.

In his first two weeks in office, President Donald Trump's "America First" pledge has proven more than an idle slogan. In word and deed, the White House has signaled an aggressive unilateral stance toward the world that's antagonized allies abroad and divided supporters at home..."Treating the system like its optional, or that it doesn't have any important function at the moment, is more dangerous than trying to destroy it deliberately," Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor of international affairs at Princeton University [and visiting professor at HLS], said. "He doesn't use the international system to signal to others 'Hey, this is serious, this is not so serious,' so he becomes extremely unpredictable on the world scene."

From the Philippines to Britain, 2016 was a year of political shake-ups, with voters in several countries across the globe ushering populist candidates or policies into office to combat inequality and "politics as usual," often highlighting corruption in the "insider" system they opposed. But in the push to reform their countries, such politicians can play a role in further corrupting government offices, a new report cautions, leading to continued social disparities and decreased transparency...“We’re seeing a wave of voter anger sweeping across a lot of democratic systems,” Kim Lane Scheppele, a sociology and international affairs professor at Princeton University [and visiting HLS professor], tells the Monitor. “Sometimes they’re upset with corruption, sometimes it’s deadlock, sometimes the sense that whoever they vote for, nothing changes. Then, they become willing to vote for the appeals of these populist leaders who say, ‘I am the state, I am your voice.’ ”