Autocratic Legalism Kim Lane Scheppele Upd =link= May 2026

While she moved to Princeton’s Department of Sociology in 2005 (with affiliations to the Woodrow Wilson School and the Program in Law and Public Policy), her voice remains prominent in Penn circles. She has been a frequent speaker at the at Penn, and many of her key post-2010 articles were developed during sabbaticals and workshops in Philadelphia. The association is so strong that even the University of Chicago Law Review symposium on autocratic legalism included UPenn scholars as commentators, reinforcing the mental link.

Crucially, each stage is defended as legal . When the European Union invoked Article 7 proceedings against Hungary, Orbán’s government replied with hundreds of pages of legal argument. They had changed the law lawfully, they insisted. The fact that the law was designed to prevent future alternation in power was, in their view, a political question, not a legal one. autocratic legalism kim lane scheppele upd

Scheppele frequently cites under Viktor Orbán and Poland (under the PiS government) as primary examples. In these cases, the leaders rewrote constitutions or passed "reforms" that effectively neutered the judiciary while claiming they were merely modernizing or "de-communizing" the system. While she moved to Princeton’s Department of Sociology

Ethical, normative, and scholarly debates Crucially, each stage is defended as legal

: Early stages under Hugo Chávez involved using referendums and legal maneuvers to bypass traditional legislative hurdles. Why It Is Difficult to Combat

Instead of traditional coups, autocratic legalists maintain the of law while destroying its substance . Key Pillars of Autocratic Legalism