A 2018 University of Chicago School of Law review paper by governance and dictatorship expert Kim Lane Scheppele entitled, Autocratic Legalism (AL), discusses how autocratic demagogues can legally kill a democracy and establish a deeply corrupt autocracy or dictatorship. Part of the abstract reads as follows:
Buried within the general phenomenon of democratic decline is a set of cases in which charismatic new leaders are elected by democratic publics and then use their electoral mandates to dismantle by law the constitutional systems they inherited. These leaders aim to consolidate power and to remain in office indefinitely, eventually eliminating the ability of democratic publics to exercise their basic democratic rights, to hold leaders accountable, and to change their leaders peacefully. Because these “legalistic autocrats” deploy the law to achieve their aims, impending autocracy may not be evident at the start. But we can learn to spot the legalistic autocrats before autocratic constitutionalism becomes fatal because they are often following a script using tactics that they borrow from each other.
- AL constitutes a pattern of democratic decline where charismatic demagogues elected through democratic processes systematically dismantle constitutional systems and norms by legal means, not force. This is a sophisticated form of authoritarianism that operates under the cover of legal legitimacy. That makes it particularly dangerous because the autocratic transformation may not be evident early on, and often some time later. Autocrats consolidate power while they maintain a facade of democratic governance to hide their true intentions.
- A key AL tactic centers on corrupting laws in one of three main ways. This involves (i) use or creation of convenient laws, (ii) abuse of unfavorable laws, and (iii) non-use (non-enforcement) of unfavorable laws.[1] In the first tactic, the dictator wannabe uses or creates convenient laws by getting lawmakers to pass statutory and constitutional changes that support autocratic goals. In the second tactic, convenient laws are abused by reinterpreting them in ways favorable to dictatorship and corruption. Third, non-use of law amounts to simply not enforcing to laws and legal norms that obstruct concentration of power with the dictator. djt and MAGA elites have engaged in all three tactics.
- The first major warning sign of rising AL is seen when a democratically elected leader launches a concerted and sustained attack on institutions whose job it is to check their actions or on rules that hold them accountable, even when doing so in the name of their democratic mandate. This attack manifests as the loosening of constitutional constraints on executive power through legal reform, representing the first sign of the autocratic transformation. The leaders' signature promise is to not play by the old rules. Instead they position themselves as agents of necessary change.
- Autocratic consolidation of power is accomplished by multiple systematic changes that appear innocuous or only modest individually, but collectively undermine and destroy the foundations of liberal democracy. Sometimes these changes receive electoral backing and reliance on constitutional or legal methods to accomplish autocratic goals. The leaders may use congressional supermajorities or direct appeals to "the people" to pass high-level statutory and constitutional changes that, in principle and isolation, may not seem inconsistent with liberal democracy, but in fact are seriously damaging to democracy, the rule of law, and/or civil liberties.
- AL has an important international dimension. Autocratic leaders foster global authoritarian attacks on democracies and norms by learning from and supporting each other. Elite practitioners engage in systematic cross-border learning, strategic collaboration, and mutual legitimation tactics such as anti-democracy propaganda. An autocratic transnational ecosystem now exists to help AL leaders and elites to refine their tactics and adapt them to local conditions while presenting a unified front against allegedly tyrannical and completely corrupt liberal democracies and democratic norms.
Footnote:
1. Use/Creation of Convenient Laws: AL elites use legislative processes to codify laws that entrench power or suppress opposition. Georgia’s S.B. 202 (2021) imposed restrictive voting rules under the guise of "election integrity." These changes disproportionately targeted urban, minority-heavy districts that favored Democrats. Broader MAGA efforts passed 425+ restrictive voting bills nationwide after the 2020 election.
Also, on February 10, 2025 djt's Executive Order 14219 commanded the non-enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (15 USC § 78dd-1). That allows US companies to now violate that law (bribe foreign officials) for "routine business practices", effectively neutering the law by non-enforcement. Apparently, bribing foreign officials is now a routine business practice.