Books and articles examining the decline of democracy across different national contexts are constantly being published, notably Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s “How Democracies Die.” The literature also addresses the role of law in this process. Studies by Javier Corrales, Kim Lane Scheppele, and others show that the law is no longer seen as an intrinsic safeguard of liberal democracy, as autocrats, many of whom are lawyers, use it to consolidate power and marginalize opponents. These studies indicate that the backlash against liberal democracies is happening in both the Global South and North, and highlight how new research is expanding the empirical scope of analysis beyond legislative changes that affect high levels of government.
