Legal autocrats are on the rise. They use constitution and democracy to destroy both – ThePrint
Text Size:A- A+
By now, we know the pattern: A constitutional democracy, flawed but in reasonably good standing, is hit by a transformative election. A charismatic new leader comes to power, propelled by the growing impatience that the electorate feels with things as they are. The leader promises to sweep away the dysfunctions of partisanship, gridlock, bureaucracy. He claims to call things bytheir right names and to speak the unspeakable. He rails against entrenched power, entrenched people, entrenched structure. He rallies the people by assuring them that the state belongs to them, only them. He wins an upset victory over the establishment forces and starts a constitutional revolution.
Around the world, liberal constitutionalism is taking a hit from charismatic leaders like these whose signature promise is tonotplay by the old rules.
Some constitutional democracies are being deliberately hijacked by a set of legally cleverautocrats, who use constitutionalism and democracy to destroy both.
When electoral mandates plus constitutional and legal change are used in the service of an illiberal agenda, I call this phenomenon autocratic legalism. (This phrase was first used by Professor Javier Corrales to describe Hugo Chvezs rule in Venezuela.)
How does one recognise an autocratic legalist in action? One should first suspect a democratically elected leader of autocratic legalism when he launches a concerted and sustained attack on institutions whose job it is to check his actions or on rules that hold him to account, even when he does so in the name of his democratic mandate. Loosening the bonds of constitutional constraint on executive power through legal reform is the first sign of the autocratic legalist.
We can spot the legalistic autocrats while they are still consolidating power because they have ambitions to monopolise power and tend to use the same toolbox of tricks.
Also read: Modis new love: Fundamental duties Indira Gandhi inserted in Constitution during Emergency
Legalistic autocrats operate by pitting democracy against constitutionalism to thedetriment of liberalism.
Until recently, illiberal leaders rejected liberalism, constitutionalism, and democracy as a package. The classic twentieth-century dictators opposed liberal democracy in favour of invocations of peoples democracies steered by a vanguard party.
Political orientation in such a black-and-white world used to be easy. Liberals were in favour of constitutionalism and democracy, and illiberals were against both. One could therefore reliably guess that a democratic and constitutional government would necessarily be liberal in practice. But that is precisely what autocratic legalism changes.
It has been said that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue. The new legalistic autocrats enthusiastically support elections and use their electoral victories to legitimise their legal reforms. They use constitutional change as their preferred vehicle for achieving the unified domination of all of the institutions of state. Like the hypocrite, they befuddle their critics by pretending to support many of the same values their critics do. And, like the hypocrites misleading statements, their deployment of public values is meant to disguise that they intend just the opposite.
Instead of operating in the world of liberalism, then, autocratic legalists operate in the world of legalism.
But even when legalism undermines constitutionalism, it provides a backhanded tribute to the very constitutionalism it undermines. If making laws in a proper way were not so important for generating political legitimacy, the autocrats would not have bothered being so legalistic.
They have learned to speak the language of democratic constitutionalism while identifying its resonant-frequency points of tension and complexity in order to reverse its effects. When one points out that they have gutted liberalism in their defense of democracy, the legalistic autocrats point to examples in which some other constitutional democracy has done the same thing on some particular point without being attacked as a failed democratic or constitutional state.
Because they deploy the rhetoric of democracy and the methods of the law, observers find it hard to see the danger until it is too late.
Also read: The 10-point checklist on how to be an autocrat and heres how Modi fits the bill
How do the new autocrats get away with transforming liberal democratic constitutionalism into pure majoritarian legalism?
The first trick involves reliance on stick-figure stereotypes about illiberalism that are in peoples heads.
Theres the Hitler scenario. Then theres the Stalin scenario.
In both stick-figure scenarios, the concentration of power is brutal, complete, and completely obvious. Both narratives feature leaders who justify what they are doing in the name of a strong authoritarian ideology. Authoritarian leaders reduce those around them to puppets, brook no dissent, and leave no opposition standing.
Of course, history is more complicated than either scenario, and that is precisely the point. The bite-sized takeaway lessons from the two signature authoritarianisms of the twentieth century constitute the modern repertoire of signals that thepublic will recognise as dangerous.
The new autocrats know this and avoid repeating those well-known scenarios that will attract immediate and overwhelming reaction. They take a kinder, gentler, but, in the end, also destructive path. Their weapons are laws, constitutional revision, and institutional reform. Their ideology is often flexible. And they leave just enough dissent in play that they appear to be tolerant.
Instead of a scorched-earth policy that obliterates all opponents, one will find in these autocratically legalistic regimes a handful of small opposition newspapers, a few weak political parties, some government-friendly NGOs, and perhaps even a visible dissident or three (albeit always denigrated in the government-friendly media with compromising information real or fake so that hardly anyone can take these dissidents seriously). There is no state of emergency, no mass violation of traditional rights. To the casual visitor who doesnt pay close attention, a country in the grips of an autocratic legalist looks perfectly normal. There are no tanks in the streets.
The new autocrats achieve the look of normality by steering clear of human-rights violations on a mass scale, at least those human rights that have been entrenched in international conventions and many national constitutions.
In keeping with their concern to maintain a legitimate public appearance, it is positively useful for them to appear to have some democratic openness precisely so that they can claim that they are not authoritarians of the twentieth-century sort. They therefore tolerate a weakened opposition and other democratic signs of life, such as a small critical press or a few opposition NGOs, to demonstrate they have not completely smothered the political environment with their autocracy.
The new autocrats will therefore not look like your fathers authoritarians who want to smash the prior system in the name of an all-encompassing ideology of transformation. Portraying themselves as democratic constitutionalists is absolutely essential to their public legitimation; what is missing in the new democratic rhetoric is any respect for the basic tenets of liberalism. They have no respect for minorities, pluralism, or toleration. They do not believe that public power should be accountable or limited.
In short, liberalism is gutted while they leave the facades of constitutionalism and democracy in place. Election opponents may be harassed with nuisance criminal charges, but they do not wind up in jail, or at least not for long. Civil-society groups may be defunded, but they are not closed by the government. The press that supports the opposition is not censored, but it may be starved of advertising and then bought out by oligarchs connected to the winners. The elections that keep the new autocrats in power are rigged in technical ways behind the scenes rather than through obvious tactics that can be spotted by observers, such as ballot-box stuffing. Through these non-violent means, democracy is transformed into brute majoritarianism. The rigged elections rigged in ways that election monitors cannot see even prove that the public supports the autocrat!
The casualty here is liberalism, even as the external appearance of democracy and constitutionalism remain in place.
Also read: Many media channels have become like entertainment channels, says Shekhar Gupta
As the new autocrats get more and more clever, deploying law to kill off liberalism, constitutionalists need to educate ourselves and democratic publics about liberal constitutionalism.
First, those of us who work in the field of constitutional law have to stare into the face of the new autocracy to track in detail how it works. We need to learn to recognise the new signs of danger, which means that we need to get better at documenting the trouble cases and learning from them.
Then, we need to educate others. Civic education needs to teach people to recognise the new signs of danger. Under what circumstances is it safe to trust the appointment of judges to a political process? When is presidentialism a sign of danger? How can the discretionary use of public power for economic intimidation be curbed? Why is the call to draft a new constitution alarming? People beyond the educated elite need to know why these questions matter, and they need to learn how to think about answering them.
Law is too important to leave only to the lawyers. A citizenry trained to resist the legalistic autocrats must be educated in the tools of law themselves. Liberal and democratic constitutionalism cannot remain an elite ideal that has no resonance in the general public; that leaves this public ripe for autocratic legalists to sweep them away in the last remaining exercises of democratic power that the public may possess.
Liberal and democratic constitutionalism is worth defending, but first we need to stop taking for granted that constitutions can defend themselves.
The author is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Views are personal.
This article is an edited excerpt from the authors essay Autocratic Legalism, first published by The University of Chicago Law Review.
ThePrint is now on Telegram. For the best reports & opinion on politics, governance and more, subscribe to ThePrint on Telegram.
Excerpt from:
Legal autocrats are on the rise. They use constitution and democracy to destroy both - ThePrint
- The Next Phase in Destroying Israeli Democracy Begins: Ousting the Attorney General - Haaretz - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- The Pollster Who Sensed Democracy Was Faltering - The Atlantic - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Whatever Evers decides, Wisconsin is heading into a high-stakes battle for democracy - Wisconsin Examiner - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Automatic voter registration: a huge step forward for democracy and a chance to bring missing millions into elections - The Conversation - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Opinion | We Need Human Connection to Heal Democracy and Build Shared Prosperity - Common Dreams - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- All the States Where DOJ is Demanding Voting Data - Democracy Docket - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- News - Updating the Arsenal of Democracy: Allies Embrace Co-Production Model - DVIDS - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- A half year of devastation: Trumps first six months shakes American democracy - New York Daily News - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Emerging right-wing politics a threat to democracy - New Age BD - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- This Week in Democracy Week 26: Soft on Child Abuse, Tough on Public Broadcasting - Zeteo - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Opinion | Defunding Public Media Makes Perfect Sense If Destroying Democracy Is the Goal - Common Dreams - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- From military coups to elections: where is African democracy heading? - africanews.com - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Democracy Is Dying But Hey Nice Fireworks Funny 4th Of July T Shirt - roarmag.org - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Noto Democracy and the slow work of civic change - The Japan Times - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- "Good Trouble Lives On" in Whittier California! Honoring the late US Representative John Lewis, the Community Rallied for Democracy and... - July 20th, 2025 [July 20th, 2025]
- Britain will lower its voting age to 16 in a bid to strengthen democracy - ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Lowering the voting age: a boost for UK democracy or a shot in the dark? - The Guardian - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- From Voices to Visions: Reflections on Climate Democracy in Practice - International IDEA - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Imagining The Path Forward for The Healthy Democracy Ecosystem - The Fulcrum - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Republicans Advance Trump Judicial Nominee Said to Have Urged Court Defiance - Democracy Docket - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- An Urgent Warning from Texas: A Conversation on Defending Democracy and Fighting Authoritarianism in the States - Center for American Progress - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- How we Treat [Immigrants] will Shape the Future of Our Democracy and Our Moral Character - The Birmingham Times - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Britain will lower its voting age to 16 in a bid to strengthen democracy - AP News - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Democracy is not theirs to dismantle. More than 120 people turn out for 'Good Trouble' protest - GazetteXtra - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Dems to Fight Texas Illegal, Unconstitutional and Egregious Effort to Rig the Elections - Democracy Docket - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Senate Advances Bill to Claw Back $9 Billion in Funds for Foreign Aid and Public Broadcasting - Democracy Now! - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Video Britain to lower voting age to 16 in a bid to strengthen democracy - ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Protecting democracy from big money: Why the UK's new elections strategy doesn't go far enough - Transparency International UK - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Election Officials Have Been Under Attack For Years. Now The DOJ Wants to Criminally Charge Them - Democracy Docket - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Pentagon to Withdraw Half of 4,000 National Guard Troops Deployed to Los Angeles - Democracy Now! - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Antithesis of democracy: Protesters gather for Good Trouble rally in Raleigh - Raleigh News & Observer - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- U.N. Rapporteur Urges Nations to Cut Ties to Israel to Stop Genocide in Gaza - Democracy Now! - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Texas Used DOJs Concerns to Justify Redistricting. Now It Says Theyre Off Base. - Democracy Docket - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Sudan, Remember Us Trailer: Watermelon Pictures Sets August Release For Doc Paying Tribute To Youthful Pro-Democracy Activism - Deadline - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Public Space Is the Infrastructure of Democracy. Its Time to Protect Our Right to Gather. - Next City - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- The U.S. Government Just Slapped The World's Largest Democracy With A Travel Advisory - TheTravel - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- History, Historians, and Democracy in the Age of Trump - Civil War Memory - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- UK to lower voting age to 16 a once-in a-generation opportunity to secure the future health of British democracy - The Conversation - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Britain will lower its voting age to 16 in a bid to strengthen democracy - MSN - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Equatorial Guinea: FAJ applauds journalists role in advancing democracy and justice at the Citizens Forum - International Federation of Journalists -... - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Britain will lower its voting age to 16 in a bid to strengthen democracy - Aurora Sentinel - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- Book review: Christianity and Democracy Today: International perspectives, edited by David P. Gushee and Paul Silas Peterson - The Church Times - July 18th, 2025 [July 18th, 2025]
- This Is the Most Inspiring Thing Ive Heard About Democracy at the Supreme Court in Ages - Slate Magazine - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Opinion | Trump Is Winning the Battle to Undermine Democracy - The New York Times - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Liberals claimed Trump would end democracy. They were wrong again. | Opinion - USA Today - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Daily Briefing July 15: Day 648 Dramatic day at Knesset leaves democracy intact for now - The Times of Israel - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Who is leading and lagging on democracy and reforms in the EUs Eastern Partnership? - New Eastern Europe - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Understanding the evolution and state of democracy in Zimbabwe: When a coup is not called a coup - Brookings - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- 'Misogyny Is a System': Julie Suk Wants to Reimagine U.S. Institutionsand Build a Democracy of Equality - Ms. Magazine - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- State Departments Restructuring and Proposed Budget Cuts Roll Back U.S. Role in Democracy and Human Rights Globally; Congress Has a Chance to Fix This... - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Court Delays Termination of TPS for 12,000 Afghans as Both Sides Asked to Submit Arguments - Democracy Now! - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Get Maine on the train for democracy before its too late | Opinion - The Portland Press Herald - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- We are ready to lead our country toward democracy and a European path - - July 16th, 2025 [July 16th, 2025]
- Mandelblit believes Israel heading toward end of democracy - The Times of Israel - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Jurists refer to the obstacle in front of peace, democracy in Turkey - - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Hundreds attend pro-democracy rally in Oceanside - Times of San Diego - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- The GOP Is Working Overtime to Take the People Out of Democracy - WhoWhatWhy - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Freedom to Choose?: Peter Beinart Slams Trump-Netanyahu Plan for Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza - Democracy Now! - July 14th, 2025 [July 14th, 2025]
- Evers refusal to fight and the fate of democracy - Wisconsin Examiner - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- What Exactly Is Required to Preserve Our Democracy? - The Atlantic - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Departments Anti-Voting Shift - Democracy Docket - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Apocalypse in the Tropics is the democracy documentary Trump doesnt want you to see - San Francisco Chronicle - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Depression due to politics? The quiet danger to democracy - University of California - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Theme Panel: Author Meets Critics: Depolarizing Politics and Saving Democracy by Jennifer McCoy and Murat Somer - Political Science Now - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Democracy report card: Experts weigh in on where the US stands - KPBS - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- This Week in Democracy Week 25: Epstein Cover-Ups, Crypto Corruption, and Trump's Tariff Tyranny - Zeteo - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese on Israel: From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide - Democracy Now! - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Knesset's new law on religious courts and what it means for democracy - opinion - The Jerusalem Post - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Inequality has risen from 1970 to Trump that has 3 hidden costs that undermine democracy - The Conversation - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- How to Stand Up for Democracy: Pedro Silva on Laughter and Liberation - WORT-FM 89.9 - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- In defense of a human right to democracy: Reflections on the pending Advisory Opinion before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights - EJIL: Talk! - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- What Is the Trump Doctrine? John Bellamy Foster on U.S. Foreign Policy & the New MAGA Imperialism - Democracy Now! - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Letters: Erosion of our democracy was the work of decades of right-wing plotting - NOLA.com - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Peter Beinart on Zohran Mamdani & Why Democratic Voters Are Increasingly Skeptical of Israel - Democracy Now! - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- NAACP president says fight for democracy and justice will continue - WFAE - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Harbingers: What January 6 and Charlottesville Reveal About Rising Threats to American Democracy - Ideastream - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Perspective: Only one branch of government? Keep fighting to preserve our democracy - Northern Public Radio - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Capitol Briefs: Weed taxes, algorithm collusion and the fate of Democracy - Capitol Weekly - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Expand Democracy: Musks Third Party, RCV in NYC, and Miami Backlash - The Fulcrum - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- This Is Our Shot: A Democracy Roadshow for the American Imagination - The Fulcrum - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]