How to Save a Constitutional Democracy
1.5 ethics credits
Aziz Z. Huq is the Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law at the University of Chicago.
Tom Ginsburg is the Leo Spitz Professor of International Law and professor of political science at the University of Chicago.
MODERATED BY: Professor Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and Faculty Director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL)
DEMOCRACIES ARE IN DANGER.
THEY CAN NO LONGER BE COMPLACENT.
Around the world, a rising wave of populist leaders threatens to erode the core structures of democratic self-rule. In their book, authors Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Z. Huq argue that we can no longer afford to be complacent.
Drawing on other countries’ experiences with democratic backsliding, Ginsburg and Huq show how constitutional rules can both hinder and hasten the decline of democratic institutions. The checks and balances of the federal government, a robust civil society and media, and individual rights often fail as bulwarks against democratic decline.
The sobering reality for the United States, they contend, is that the Constitution’s design makes democratic erosion more, not less, likely. But they also provide practical steps for how laws and constitutional design can play a more positive role in managing the risk of democratic decline.