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Kirkbride Lecture Hall, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA

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Kim L. Scheppele from Princeton University uses examples from Hungary, Turkey, Venezuela, Poland, Russia, India and elsewhere to explore the phenomenon of democratic decline.

 

Buried within the general phenomenon of democratic decline is a set of cases in which charismatic new leaders are elected by democratic publics and then use their electoral mandates to dismantle by law the constitutional systems they inherited. These leaders aim to consolidate power and to remain in office indefinitely, eventually eliminating the ability of democratic publics to exercise their basic democratic rights, to hold leaders accountable, and to change their leaders peacefully. Because these “legalistic autocrats” deploy the law to achieve their aims, impending autocracy may not be evident at the start. But we can learn to spot the legalistic autocrats before autocratic constitutionalism becomes fatal because they are often following a script using tactics that they borrow from each other.

 

Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University. She is the winner of numerous awards and distinctions, and she is one of the foremost experts on how legal and constitutional instruments can be used to destroy democracy.

 

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From Dr. Karen Asenavage Loptes, Director Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Delaware, kasen@udel.edu
Was this recorded?
If not, I would like to know if it is possible to contact her about speaking to our OLLI members.
Thanks, Karen