Hermes, I certainly hope your analysis is more accurate than mine. Time will tell. As for the idea that Poland and Hungary are experiencing “growing pains” from which they will emerge as functioning democratic states, I think it’s important to note that although we continue to fetishize representative democracy it is in fact an approach to governance totally unsuited to our modern complex world. Hence the idea that becoming “more democratic” is the antidote to authoritarianism is perhaps misguided. After all, democracy gave the world Trump, Modi, Brexit, Orban, PiS, Erdogan, Duterte, etc. and this would indicate that (a) democracy is hardly a panacea, and (b) democracy is very readily the means whereby the unscrupulous readily dupe the ignorant and credulous.