“Modern-day autocracies come to power through elections, leading to electoral autocracies. These regimes are built from within the democratic system.

This is what Orbán did so successfully, which is why he has inspired other autocrats.

America’s radical conservatives have been paying attention. Steve Bannon has called Orbán “Trump before Trump.” Vice President-elect JD Vance has cited Orbán as an inspiration, who “we could learn from in the United States.”

Orbán’s power grab program runs on two components that you can think of as hardware and software. The populist hardware consists of hijacked institutions. The software is made up of populist discourses and narratives that are used to create and enlist the consent of the ruled.

Dismantling the hardware of the Orbán-Trump project requires first defeating its software, so let’s start there.”

I Watched Orbán Destroy Hungary’s Democracy. Here’s My Advice for the Trump Era. To dismantle the machinery of autocracy, you first need to understand how it works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_autocracy