Államháztartási kiadások alakulása populista kormányok alatt Kelet-Közép-Európában

Since the 2010s, a populist turn has been taking place in Central and Eastern Europe, and consequently populist parties have assumed control over the respective governments. In the literature, populist rule has been characterised with a) an irresponsible fiscal policy which ignores the budget constraint; and b) a biased redistribution policy that deliberately divides society into two antagonistic groups. Our analysis, covering the period between 2010 and 2022, demonstrates that populist governments in the region – generally speaking – have not relied on the accumulation of public deficit and debt; they, have, in fact, not differed from their non-populist peers with regard to fiscal discipline. Nevertheless, incumbent populist parties have used a conscious redistribution policy in their spending activities by favouring certain groups in society. Yet the spending preferences of populist parties in the region do show discrepancies as well; therefore, no single type of fiscal programme can be identified in the studied period.