S1E3: Under­min­ing Democ­ra­cy by Demo­c­ra­t­ic Means: how can we stop it?

As the results of the 2020 US elec­tion are trick­ling in, we are explor­ing how laws – and notably elec­toral laws – can be used to dis­man­tle the con­sti­tu­tion­al sys­tems from with­in. The under­min­ing of democ­ra­cy evokes sharp images of author­i­tar­i­an­ism and a con­tempt for lib­er­tar­i­an­ism. Instead, what we are fac­ing today is a decep­tive onslaught through polit­i­cal and legal machi­na­tions, hol­low­ing out the fun­da­men­tal process­es of free­dom that lie at the heart of democ­ra­cy and insti­tu­tion­al legit­i­ma­cy. In the third episode of Democ­ra­cy in Ques­tion?, IWM Rec­tor and host of this pod­cast, Shali­ni Ran­de­ria asks Kim Lane Schep­pele (Prince­ton Uni­ver­si­ty) how lib­er­al prin­ci­ples and insti­tu­tions are being sub­vert­ed while using elec­toral majori­ties. They explore democracy’s “demo­c­ra­t­ic undo­ing” by elect­ed lead­ers who use demo­c­ra­t­ic man­dates to under­mine and sub­vert the con­sti­tu­tion­al sys­tems of checks and bal­ances that they inher­it­ed. Refer­ring to this phe­nom­e­non, Kim Lane Schep­pele has coined the provoca­tive term of “auto­crat­ic legal­ism” to explain the rise of soft author­i­tar­i­an regimes. Her con­ver­sa­tion with Shali­ni Ran­de­ria focus­es on these devel­op­ments, uncov­er­ing the ori­gins and threats to democ­ra­cy and explor­ing pre­scrip­tions for the resur­gence of democracy