Planting Ideas Across Fields: MCC Brussels as a Boundary-Blurring Illiberal Think Tank

Mora, Alessia
(2025)

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Details

Supervisors
Paternotte, David
Faculty
Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres
Degree label
Master de spécialisation en études de genre
Abstract
This thesis investigates how the Hungarian think tank MCC Brussels creates, performs, and mobilises expertise within the EU policy space. Drawing on staff profile analysis, event mapping, and discourse analysis, the study shows that MCC Brussels adopts the outward form of a conventional think tank while operating as an illiberal think tank, a political actor using the symbolic authority of expertise to legitimise its ideological goals. The organisation’s staff profiles reveal a predominance of politically active academics, and careers that blur the lines between academia, media, and politics. An analysis of all MCC Brussels public events and its speakers over three years shows a narrow ideological spectrum, with strong ties to certain UK social circles. Discourse analysis of MCC Brussels’ publications and events on gender equality, rights of women and LGBTI people, highlights its role in reframing anti-gender narratives, promoting “conservative feminism”, and linking gender politics to anti-immigration frames. This research extends Medvetz’s framework to the European context, revealing how illiberal actors adapt think tank repertoires to contest liberal-democratic norms.