Kim Lane Scheppele Autocratic Legalism __exclusive__ Jun 2026

These leaders often adopt legal tools used in established democracies (like gerrymandering or specific judicial appointment processes) but apply them in toxic combinations to kill off constitutionalism.

Autocratic Legalism is a phenomenon where authoritarian regimes use law as a tool to maintain control, suppress dissent, and manipulate public opinion. This approach involves the strategic use of legal institutions, laws, and regulations to: kim lane scheppele autocratic legalism

Scheppele has applied her concept of autocratic legalism to various contexts, including: These leaders often adopt legal tools used in

In the popular imagination, the death of democracy is a noisy affair: tanks in the streets, the suspension of parliament, a menacing figure in military uniform seizing a microphone. But Kim Lane Scheppele, a Princeton sociologist and legal scholar, has spent decades warning that the reality is far quieter, far more meticulous, and far more insidious. The assassin, she argues, does not discard the law. It wields it. But Kim Lane Scheppele, a Princeton sociologist and