REDESIGNING DEMOCRACY:
CAN IT HELP TO ENHANCE RESILIENCE?
Democratic crisis - especially democratic backsliding and self-coups - has revealed serious weaknesses in democratic systems worldwide, and has challenged those who design constitutions and institutions to re-think their models and assumptions. However, it has also revealed sources of resilience and has generated innovation and reference to a wider range of constitutional models.
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Democratic decay has revealed serious weaknesses in democratic systems worldwide, and has challenged those who design constitutions and institutions to re-think their models and assumptions. However, it has also revealed sources of resilience and has generated innovation and reference to a wider range of constitutional models.
EXAMPLES OF KEY WEAKNESSES
USA
A framework for Supreme Court appointments that relies mainly on political conventions makes it easier for an anti-democrat to subvert established practice to gain more control of appointments. This highlights how constitutional design often assumes key norms will be respected, how written law cannot operate as envisaged in a culture of norm-breaking, and how fuller protections may be needed.
HUNGARY
A unicameral parliament (i.e. with just one chamber) is arguably easier for an anti-democratic government to dominate and control. This is especially true for a unitary state where the electoral system grants very significant parliamentary majorities to a party far beyond its actual vote share in elections. In Hungary the first-past-the-post system is a central weakness.
POLAND
Where one top court is exclusively responsible for deciding whether laws and government action are compatible with the constitution (i.e. centralised constitutional review), this arguably makes it easier for anti-democratic governments to ‘capture’ a key obstacle to their plans. This undermines the longstanding view of centralised control as a ‘gold standard’ of review.
AUSTRALIA
Australia has evidently not suffered government-led attacks on democratic institutions in any way comparable to the USA, Poland, and Hungary. However, bodies such as the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) have raised serious concerns about growing restrictions on the right to protest across Australia, connected to the lack of a federal bill of rights.
SOME GOOD NEWS: EXAMPLES OF RESILIENCE
AUSTRALIA
When the COVID-19 pandemic appeared in 2020, Australia established the National Cabinet - a new intergovernmental forum comprising the federal prime minister and all state and territory premiers and chief ministers - achieved levels of coordination far beyond other federal states. Although this ‘executive federalism’ undermined the centrality of parliaments, it showed Australia’s clear capacity for institutional innovation.
BRAZIL
Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency from 2019-2023 presented the gravest threat to Brazilian democracy since the democratic transition in 1985. However, many institutions pushed back: o Congress defeated a tabled constitutional amendment to return undermine the electronic system; a motion to impeach Justice de Moraes did not proceed in the Senate; and the Supreme Court blocked the president’s attempts to make greater use of temporary executive laws (‘provisional measures’) during the Covid-19 pandemic.
SOUTH KOREA
When President Yoon declared martial law in December 2024, the constitutional requirement for Congress’s approval provided a means to challenge this move. The opposition in Congress began the impeachment process within days and it was confirmed by the Constitutional Court in April 2025. They also pushed for a separate trial for the crime of insurrection, and impeached multiple Acting Presidents who vetoed laws to appoint these prosecutors.
POLAND
During the Law and Justice party’s two terms in government, from 2015-2023, the ruling party managed to disable or capture virtually all state institutions. This included the Constitutional Tribunal and, after elections in 2019, the Electoral Commission. However, one institution remained independent: the Ombudsman. The office-holder Adam Bodnar, despite having limited powers to push back, presented a central symbol and focal point for those resisting the government’s hollowing out of Poland’s democratic system.
GET THE FULL PICTURE
How Can We Design Resilient institutions?
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Constitutional Design and Democracy
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IDEA Report: Designing Resistance
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Spotlight: Constitution Transformation Network
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