What’s Wrong With ‘Illiberal Democracy’?

On Sunday, Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, is up for re-election, possibly on track to his fourth term in office. Mr. Orban has spent the past several years weakening his country’s democratic checks and balances; he has attacked independent civil society, and he has brought the media under the control of oligarchs close to his government. While doing so, he has advertised his approach as a distinctive form of democracy, one fit to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It is, he says, “illiberal democracy.”