Autocratic Legalism Kim Lane Scheppele Upd Official

Kim Lane Scheppele autocratic legalism as the process where democratically elected leaders use their electoral mandates to systematically dismantle the constitutional system through legal and constitutional means. Unlike 20th-century autocrats who relied on military coups, modern "legalistic autocrats" weaponize the law to consolidate power, hollowing out liberal democratic values while maintaining a "veneer of legality". Paper Outline: Autocratic Legalism I. Introduction Definition

But autocratic legalism is not a Central European pathology. In a widely circulated 2020 essay, The End of the Trump Era and the Future of Autocratic Legalism , Scheppele turned her lens to the United States. She argued that while Donald Trump was a clumsy autocrat—more impulse than strategy—his administration had nevertheless deployed autocratic legalist tactics: a travel ban justified by statutory authority, the separation of migrant families under a literal reading of a 1997 consent decree, the rewriting of postal service rules before an election, and the relentless pressure on the Department of Justice to act as a personal law firm. autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd

6. Case studies and examples Below are illustrative examples—each demonstrates different facets of autocratic legalism. These are summaries to show how the toolkit plays out; details vary across countries.

stages

Scheppele’s close reading of the Hungarian case, published in Constitutional Democracy and the Rule of Law (2015), broke new ground. She showed that autocratic legalism proceeds in : Kim Lane Scheppele autocratic legalism as the process

creeping autocratic legalism

In a controversial extension, Scheppele’s 2026 working paper (pre-circulated at Princeton’s “Democratic Resilience” workshop) applies the framework to the United States—not as a full autocracy, but as a case of . Examples: stages Scheppele’s close reading of the Hungarian case,

Scheppele’s research outlines a specific toolkit used by autocratic legalists to consolidate power. The goal is rarely to abolish democracy entirely, but to create a "zombie democracy"—an empty shell where elections happen, but the incumbent can never lose.

Why it fits:

3. The "Facades" of Legality