Hardball politics becomes a fundamental, everyday experience for hundreds of millions
of people living in illiberal regimes. The perception, insight, understanding, interpretation,
treatment and coping with the ‘ethics for playing hardball’ becomes a practical challenge
for political actors (elected officials, MPs, mayors, policy experts, journalists,
political commentators, political advisors, civil servants, civil activists, citizens)
and a theoretical challenge for political scientists living in illiberal regimes.
Acknowledging the author’s ambition, we can say that Szűcs perceives, undertakes,
and in his monograph carries out this scholarly task, filling an important hiatus
in the Hungarian political science discourse.
