Welcome to the Cato podcast. I'm Ryan Bourne, Cato's Rivens-Ref and Schaft Chair for the Public Understanding of Economics.

This Sunday, Hungarians are scheduled to go to the polls in what has become a strikingly controversial election of interests far beyond Hungary's shores. I don't think I can remember another central European election that has drawn so much attention from American politicians and indeed our media, certainly in the nine years I've been here. Just days before the vote, Vice President J.D. Vance went to Budapest to

openly back incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orban, praising what he called the moral cooperation

between the Trump administration and Orban's government in the defense of Western civilization, no

less. And I think that tells us something important.

For parts of the American new riot,

Orban is not just another European leader.

He is an ideological ally,

and perhaps even a model that they draw inspiration from.

That's what makes a new Cato paper so timely.

Published last week, less than two weeks before the election.

It reviews the All-Ban government's record over 16 years and argues that All-Bans Hungary is less a success story to inspire American conservatives and more accustomary tale.

So, Ewan Norberg is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and is the author of that study and he joins

me for the Cato podcast today.

Yoan, welcome.

Thank you, Ryan.

So, Joanne, this has been an unprecedented in terms of attention at this election.

And I think it's fair to say that although Cato does a lot of work looking at how human freedom is developing around the world,

it's quite unusual for us to publish such an analysis of one country in the build-up to a poll like this.

So why was this topic so important that you thought you wanted to explore it for this paper?

Yeah, I think the reason why we chose to do this is actually the same reason for why

it's attracted so much attention around the world, because Hungary is not just Hungary.

...