S07E02: Kim Lane Schep­pele on Destroy­ing Democ­ra­cy by Law

This episode focus­es on com­par­isons of soft author­i­tar­i­an regimes and the phe­nom­e­non of auto­crat­ic legal­ism. How do the uses and abus­es of law play a role in dis­man­tling lib­er­al democ­ra­cy from with­in and cement­ing author­i­tar­i­an rule? Lis­ten to hear how coun­tries includ­ing Turkey, Hun­gary and the Unit­ed States are using legal means to illib­er­al ends, and how resis­tance could be organized.

Guest fea­tured in this episode: 

Kim Lane Schep­pele was the found­ing co-direc­tor of the gen­der stud­ies pro­gram at the Cen­tral Euro­pean Uni­ver­si­ty. In 2014, she received the Kal­ven Prize from the Law and Soci­ety Asso­ci­a­tion for Schol­ar­ship, that has had an impor­tant influ­ence on the devel­op­ment of social legal stud­ies. In 2016, she was elect­ed to the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Arts and Sci­ences. Cur­rent­ly she is work­ing on two books. Her book, “Destroy­ing Democ­ra­cy by Law,” exam­ines how a new gen­er­a­tion of auto­crats around the world is con­sol­i­dat­ing pow­er using the law, or, abus­ing the law. The oth­er book, titled “Hun­gary’s Con­sti­tu­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion: From Com­mu­nism through Lib­er­al­ism to Autoc­ra­cy,”, com­pares the 1989 con­sti­tu­tion­al rev­o­lu­tion in Hun­gary with the new con­sti­tu­tion­al order that replaced it in 2011/2012.