—Dian AH Shah and Andrew Harding, National University Singapore Faculty of Law Democratic backsliding has become quite the flavour of the decade, unfortunately, as the pages of this blog reveal all too starkly: Hungary, Poland, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey, and many other instances across the world.[1] In contrast Malaysia appeared – until recently –
Bolsonaro’s First Year: Trying to Erode Democracy
—Antonio Moreira Maués, Federal University of Pará The first year of the Bolsonaro government had poor results in the economy and was marked by a high degree of political instability. Although he managed to approve pension reform, Bolsonaro does not have a stable parliamentary base in the National Congress[1] and has also lost a
ICON Book Review: Piotr Mikuli on Wojciech Sadurski’s “Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown”
[Editor’s Note: This book review by Piotr Mikuli of Wojciech Sadurski’s new book, Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown, is forthcoming in the next issue of ICON.] Wojciech Sadurski. Poland’s Constitutional Breakdown. Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. 304. ISBN 978-0198840503 The book’s title refers to the expression “constitutional breakdown”, which seems to reflect the author’s profound thoughts regarding
The Party Fragmentation Paradox in Brazil: A Shield Against Authoritarianism?
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development Brazil features possibly the most fragmented party system in the world. At this current legislative term, there are 25 parties with representation in the Lower House, and 16 in the Senate. The level of fragmentation is so steep that the biggest
Indonesia’s Pesta Demokrasi in the Face of Regressing Constitutional Democracy
—Dian A H Shah, National University Singapore Faculty of Law [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. Columns, while scholarly in accordance with the tone of the blog and about the same length as a normal blog post, are a bit more “op-ed” in nature than standard posts. For more information about
Are Constitutional Democracies Really in Crisis?
—Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard Law School It may seem churlish for one of the co-editors of the recently published Constitutional Democracies in Crisis? (with Mark Graber and Sanford Levinson) to raise questions about what readers might take to be the book’s basic conceptualization, that we are experiencing a widespread crisis for
When is a Limp More than a Limp? Diagnosing Democratic Decay
—Tom Gerald Daly, Fellow, Melbourne Law School; Associate Director, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law Sometimes a limp is just a limp–arising from a debilitating yet isolated injury or infection that will soon heal. However, sometimes a limp can be indicative of a degenerative disease such as multiple sclerosis. Gaining a clear diagnosis and prognosis of
Comparative Law in the Age of Trump (I-CONnect Column)
—Aslı Bâli, UCLA School of Law [Editor’s note: This is one of our biweekly I-CONnect columns. Columns, while scholarly in accordance with the tone of the blog and about the same length as a normal blog post, are a bit more “op-ed” in nature than standard posts. For more information about our four columnists for 2017,
Time to View Democratic Decay as a Unified Research Field?
—Tom Gerald Daly, Associate Director, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law Each passing month brings more warnings of global democratic decay, which we might loosely define as the incremental degradation of the structures and substance of liberal democracy, as distinct from a clear and rapid breakdown of democratic rule. September began with a speech by the UN
