The aspiring autocrat wins a democratic election, often by campaigning on a populist platform that frames existing institutions—courts, media, civil society—as corrupt, out of touch, or beholden to foreign interests. In many cases, they exploit weaknesses in electoral laws to translate minority support into a supermajority in parliament. This is precisely what happened in Hungary in 2010, when Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party won a two-thirds parliamentary majority, and in Poland in 2015, when the Law and Justice party (PiS) secured a parliamentary majority.
Scheppele’s research identifies a pattern of "explicit borrowing" among these regimes, which often share legal strategies to bypass constitutional constraints. Autocratic Legalism | The University of Chicago Law Review
is a highly calculated governance strategy where democratically elected leaders use their legal mandate and formal constitutional methods to systematically dismantle the checks, balances, and institutions of liberal democracies. Coined and popularized in constitutional sociology by Princeton University professor Kim Lane Scheppele , this concept describes a "constitutional coup" executed without violence or military intervention. Instead of violating the law, autocratic legalists weaponize it, using the literal text of the law to assassinate its democratic spirit.
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By maintaining a strict facade of legalism, autocratic legalists gain a crucial asset that traditional military juntas lacked: institutional legitimacy. Because their actions are cloaked in formal legal procedures, international monitoring bodies, domestic courts, and ordinary citizens often fail to recognize the impending dictatorship until the transition is virtually irreversible. The Core Mechanisms of Autocratic Legalism
Laws are passed through proper parliamentary procedures. Courts issue written opinions. Appeals are available. Yet the substantive effect is to entrench ruling-party power beyond electoral reach.
Between 2010 and 2014, Orbán’s government enacted a new constitution (the Fundamental Law), reduced the Constitutional Court’s jurisdiction over fiscal matters, slashed the retirement age for judges from 70 to 62 (dismissing nearly 300 judges at once), installed a pro-government media council, and rewrote election rules to entrench the majority. Every step was legally taken. No tanks rolled. Yet by 2014, Hungary was no longer a liberal democracy.
A central tactic is taking over the constitutional court. Once the highest court is packed with loyalists, the autocrat can pass unconstitutional laws, which the court then rules "legal". C. Electoral Manipulation (The "Gerrymander") The aspiring autocrat wins a democratic election, often
Scheppele is careful to distinguish this from mere “rule by law” (where law is a tool of power). Autocratic legalism is more insidious because it preserves the discourse of constitutionalism. It celebrates legality while hollowing it out. As she put it in a 2019 lecture at UPenn: “They are not burning the law books. They are rewriting them, one chapter per election, and insisting we still call the book a constitution.”
It looks like you're referencing the concept of as developed by political and legal scholar Kim Lane Scheppele .
: As a legal sociologist, Scheppele highlights how these leaders often enjoy genuine popularity, using their mandates to claim that "the people" want them to override restrictive legal norms. Global Context
Autocrats do not abolish elections. Instead, they rewrite election laws to ensure they cannot lose. As discussed in this 2025 YouTube lecture by Scheppele , this includes: Redrawing electoral districts. Manipulating the media landscape to stifle opposition. Using state resources to fund campaigns. D. Criminalization of Opposition Instead of violating the law, autocratic legalists weaponize
When criticized, the autocrat can point to individual provisions and defend them by saying, "This law exists in France," or "This is how Germany structures its committees."
Scheppele introduces the concept of the to explain how these regimes sustain themselves.
Existing rules are reinterpreted to suit the leader's goals, often through loyalists placed in administrative or judicial roles. Global Manifestations
Stages and processes (how autocratic legalism unfolds)