FIRST AS TRAGEDY, THEN AS FARCE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RIGHT-WING POPULISM IN HUNGARY AND POLAND

National populism is a widespread phenomenon, present in almost every European country. Even though literature on populism is quite ample, it lacks terminological intersections and uses different approaches to delineate the term. The aim of this article is to adjust the term national populism to the specificities of the V4 countries, focusing on Hungary and Poland. We make threefold contribution to the current debate on populism. Firstly, a new dimension concerning populism is present, a requirement of the newly formed populist elite to decide, who is the "people". Secondly, we introduce coherent description and comparison of national populists' tendencies in Hungary and Poland, in summary called "Orban's illiberal doctrine", which was adopted around Budapest-Warsaw axis. Thirdly, we view the V4 region to be a proxy-war in what Milanovic calls "Clash of Capitalisms". The notion of Orban's illiberal doctrine challenges erratic Czech and Slovak opportunism, so far prone to liberal capitalistic order.