Politics

Jun 26, 2026 Harold James

Although recent political mobilizations in Hungary, Albania, and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe could be described as populist and nationalist, they have little in common with the aggressive ethnonationalism that MAGA professes. Could they be a model for a new form of politics?

PRINCETON—Conventional wisdom has it that an autocratic ethnonationalist backlash against global capitalism and liberal democracy is driving 21st-century politics. Yet recent developments have shown the political revolt to be more nuanced. In an era of rapid technological and economic change, people invariably look to the past. But nostalgia can inspire both ethnonationalists and those seeking to resist autocracy.