I am pursuing my topic, democratic decline in Hungary, because I want to find out what is causing the democratic recession that currently dominates large parts of public discourse. The reason I am seeking this knowledge is that I want to learn how democratic decline can be stopped and reversed. One of the reasons for this motivation is that I am firmly of the belief that the primary purpose of social science research is to improve human welfare.
Implicit in this motivation is the assumption that democracy is fundamentally a good thing. That assumption is something I most definitely subscribe to. I believe that liberal democracy provides the best outcomes of any form of government for those who live under it. Furthermore, I am a strong proponent of democratic peace theory and believe that the norms espoused by liberal democracies have been all-important to the construction of the liberal international order. Therefore, I view the decline of liberal democracy worldwide as a fundamental threat to international order and the unprecedented peace and prosperity that order has brought to the world. My belief in the importance of democracy to the well-being of the people of the world is another reason I have chosen the investigate its decline. One further observation of my normative beliefs is that I view peace and prosperity as positives.
The primary effect of this motivation on my methodological decisions is that it leads me to utilize methodologies that emphasize the search for causal relationships. This is what led me to neopositivism in general and small-n analysis in particular. While less of a normative assumption and more a matter of personal preference, the decision to focus in on Hungary as my primary case springs from my interest in Europe. Europe is my regional focus within SIS and has long been of interest to me. Furthermore, the rise of illiberal regimes throughout Europe, especially when those regimes tend towards nationalism, is not usually associated with good things. In the last century, a similar concoction of illiberalism and nationalism in Europe killed tens of millions of people. While I don’t believe that Europe is by any means returning to the state it was in in the years prior to World War II, the return of illiberalism and nationalism to Europe is worrying. These worries are what drove me to my topic and they continue to inform my methodological decisions and case selection today.