Autocratic Legalism Kim Lane Scheppele Upd 〈2027〉

: Changes are made through constitutional amendments, new legislation, or court packing.

Second, Critics from the Global South note that many post-colonial nations have always used legal forms to maintain oligarchic control—South Africa under apartheid, for example. Is autocratic legalism new, or simply a rebranding of “managed democracy”? Scheppele concedes the point in recent work, acknowledging that the Hungarian model borrows from earlier “electoral authoritarian” regimes in Russia and Singapore. However, she insists the term retains analytic value because it captures the performative hypocrisy of claiming liberal legality while destroying it—a hypocrisy that previous authoritarian legal forms did not bother to maintain. autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd

: 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 : Changes are made through constitutional amendments, new