Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor at Princeton University, defines as the process by which democratically elected leaders use their mandates to dismantle the constitutional systems they inherited through legal means. Instead of traditional coups with "tanks and soldiers," these leaders rely on "teams of lawyers" to consolidate power and eliminate democratic checks. Core Mechanism: "Destroying Democracy by Law"
In a 2026 working paper, Scheppele (now at Central European University’s Democracy Institute) notes that the EU’s rule-of-law conditionality mechanism has forced Poland’s new centrist government to reverse some judicial changes. However, she argues that the EU remains vulnerable because “autocratic legalism migrates”—tactics learned in Budapest and Warsaw are now appearing in smaller member states’ local government laws.
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 autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd
This creates a paradoxical situation where the institutions of democracy—parliaments, courts, and elections—remain standing, but they are hollowed out. Scheppele argues that this "façade" is essential for the autocrat’s survival. It provides plausible deniability. When the European Union or the international community critiques the regime, the autocrat can point to the functioning parliament and the independent-looking courts and claim that their policies are merely the result of the democratic will of the people. This strategy exploits the international community’s narrow definition of democracy, which often focuses on the presence of elections rather than the fairness of the playing field.
Scheppele’s theory is not abstract. It emerged from watching in Hungary after its 2010 supermajority. Hungary became the lab, and the experiment was terrifyingly efficient. autocratic legalism Kim Lane Scheppele, a professor at
: Changes are made through constitutional amendments, new legislation, or court packing.
If you need a comparative or updated perspective (e.g., including Turkey or Venezuela), also useful is: However, she argues that the EU remains vulnerable
The European Union, initially paralyzed, has now activated Article 7 and budget conditionality. But autocrats adapted. In Poland after the 2023 election, a pro-European coalition began dismantling PiS’s judicial controls. However, Scheppele’s 2025 update notes a : Orbán and Polish PiS loyalists (now in opposition) are using constitutional complaints and administrative courts to sabotage the restoration. Autocratic legalism, once a tool of incumbents, is now a weapon for obstructionist minorities .