Most twenty-first-century autocracies are built via constitutional hardball. Democratic backsliding occurs gradually, through a series of reasonable-looking measures: new laws that are ostensibly designed to clean up elections, combat corruption, or create a more efficient judiciary; court rulings that reinterpret existing laws; long-dormant laws that are conveniently rediscovered. Because the measures are couched in legality, it may appear as if little has changed. No blood has been shed. No one has been arrested or sent into exile. Parliament remains open. So criticism of the government’s
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