The latest episode of the Democracy in Question podcast, hosted by CEU President and Rector Shalini Randeria, features Kim Lane Scheppele, who is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University.
Lane Scheppele was the founding co-director of CEU’s gender studies program, and in 2014 she received the Kalven Prize from the Law and Society Association for Scholarship for her influence on the development of social legal studies. In 2016, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she served as president of the Law and Society Association. Her book, "Destroying Democracy by Law," examines how autocrats around the world are consolidating power by using or abusing the law, and her forthcoming book, "Hungary's Constitutional Transformation: From Communism through Liberalism to Autocracy," compares the 1989 constitutional revolution in Hungary with the new constitutional order that replaced it.
In this episode “Kim Lane Scheppele on Destroying Democracy by Law" published July 12, Randeria and her guest focus on comparisons of soft authoritarian regimes and the phenomenon of autocratic legalism. How do the uses and abuses of law play a role in dismantling liberal democracy from within and cementing authoritarian rule? Listen to hear how countries including Turkey, Hungary and the United States are using legal means to illiberal ends, and how resistance could be organized.
For each episode of Democracy in Question, Randeria invites a leading scholar or public figure to explore the challenges and dilemmas facing democracies around the world. Listen to the trailer and subscribe here.
Series seven of Democracy in Question is produced in partnership with the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy at the Graduate Institute in Geneva (AHCD) where Randeria is a Senior Fellow. ACHD and the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna co-produced seasons one and two of the podcast.
