On March 15, 2025, Dr. István Stumpf was awarded the Széchenyi Prize. On behalf of the entire Institute, we extend our heartfelt congratulations to our retired Senior Research Fellow!

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Mid-term strategic plan of the Institute for Political Science (summary)

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Leading the way in domestic political science: the Institute for Political Science has achieved outstanding publication performance in international journals between 2019 and 2022

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About our Institute

The primary objective of the Institute for Political Science of the Centre for Social Sciences (CSS) is to conduct basic research in political science. Researchers at the Institute conduct both theoretical and empirical research, and the results are disseminated to both the academic and general public at scientific and professional forums.

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Latest news

PhD Conference - Call For Contributions

The study of political phenomena has attracted scholars from different disciplines (such as comparative politics, political economy, political sociology and political communication), who approach intertwined questions from distinct perspectives. The resulting discourses, however, rarely engage with each other, while a comprehensive understanding of politics requires the joint application of diverse theoretical and methodological approaches, as well as syntheses of their results. This year’s instalment of our graduate conference, organised for the fifth time, aims to promote joint discourse and reflection by providing a forum for doctoral candidates and (post)graduate students engaged in political research

Jennifer McCoy: Populist Message of ‘We’ Versus ‘They’ Dehumanizes the Other Side

Jennifer McCoy: Populist Message of ‘We’ Versus ‘They’ Dehumanizes the Other Side

Populism is not always bad, but a populist political message can divide societies between “us” and “them”, explains Jennifer McCoy, a distinguished professor of political science at Georgia State University and a senior core fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University. In a new episode of DEMOS interviews on YouTube, McCoy discusses the main features and negative consequences of populism for democracy, like a deep political polarization, and how society can detect and react to them.

David Wineroither Writes Op-Ed for Austrian Der Standard on British Tory Brexiteers

David Wineroither Writes Op-Ed for Austrian Der Standard on British Tory Brexiteers

Political scientist David M. Wineroither, DEMOS researcher at the Centre for Social Sciences of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, wrote an op-ed for the Austrian national daily Der Standard. In his piece, Wineroither summarizes the structural inability for collective leadership on behalf of British Tory Brexiteers—a feature to characterize both the political ascendancy of Boris Johnson and populists in the majority of countries on the continent

In the Name of People

In the Name of People

Are all political discourses evoking the role of the people in democracies necessarily populists? Check out DEMOS Budapest-based researcher Gabriella Szabó's blog post on the topic and on populist communication techniques for more.

Latest posts

pti memo 03 – Ideological Conflict, Logrolling, and Policy Reform

pti memo 03 – Ideological Conflict, Logrolling, and Policy Reform

The third blog post of the pti memo series summarises the lecture of Dr. Matthew Edward Bergman, Assistant Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, titled “Ideological Conflict, Logrolling, and Policy Reform: An Analysis of Government Declarations in Western Europe.” The event was organised as part of the HUN-REN Institute for Political Science’s Speaker Series on April 10, 2025. This research, conducted jointly with Hanna Bäck (Lund University) and Wolfgang C. Müller (Universität Wien), investigates why some governments commit to more reform measures in their government declarations.

Mixed economic results and growing political conflict – Hungary’s 20 years of EU membership

Hungary is often portrayed as a problem case for European integration due to frequent clashes between Viktor Orbán’s government and the EU’s institutions. Yet, as András Bíró-Nagy and Gergő Medve-Bálint explain in their post on the LSE EUROPP blog, the country’s 20 years in the EU have also seen a relatively high level of compliance with EU policies and strong support for membership among the public.

pti memo 01 – Propaganda as a Social Process

pti memo 01 – Propaganda as a Social Process

In the first pti memo post, we summarise Christian Baden’s (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) thought-provoking lecture titled “Propaganda as a Social Process.” The lecture was hosted by the HUN-REN Institute for Political Science as part of its Speaker Series event series on January 23, 2025.