Benevolent Legislative Populism in Law Enforcement

Abstract

The article provides an assessment of the 2011 Hungarian act on nationalities (national minorities), two adjacent decrees, and a methodological guidance issued by the chief of the national police on policing multicultural communities and on relations with Roma (minority) self-governments. Besides pointing to the discrepancies of legislation and practice, the article contributes to methodological literature on penal populism and populist policy making, by introducing the concept of ‘benevolent populism.’ The author argues for the broadening of the concept of populism by including legislation that a) does not necessarily involve more severe social control; and which b) may have the international community or international organisations as reference points, when c) introducing legislation that is not, and not even intended to be enforced, partly because it is inapplicable and unsuitable per se.