Autocratic Legalism Kim Lane Scheppele Upd →

Externally, autocratic legalism allows a regime to claim “we are following the law” before the European Court of Justice, the Venice Commission, or international investors. Internally, it demoralizes the opposition by forcing them to fight legal battles on a tilted, exhausted terrain.

The warning of autocratic legalism is that the death of democracy often comes not with a bang, but with a statute. The most dangerous threat to a legal system is not lawlessness, but a legal system that has been engineered to serve power rather than constrain it. autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd

Unlike classic martial law, autocratic legalism keeps elections, parliaments, and courts intact—but hollows them out. The result: that is legally irreproachable from a formalist perspective, yet substantively unfree. Externally, autocratic legalism allows a regime to claim