Bending Checks and Balances
The Play
New authoritarians maintain power by systematically weakening key institutions. They erode checks and balances to cement control, targeting independent authorities, oversight bodies, constitutional safeguards, and internal party power-checks.
While traditional autocrats openly dismantle institutions, elected authoritarians take a subtler, slower approach. They justify their actions with reasonable-sounding rhetoric, claiming to be "fulfilling the people's mandate", "cleaning up the system," or "ushering in fresh, uncorrupted leadership."
Despite these justifications, their goal is clear: cripple accountability. By co-opting, weakening, or defunding oversight bodies and party structures, they eliminate resistance, expand executive power, and ensure their dominance remains unchallenged.
What does it look like?
1. Erosion of constitutional safeguards
A key step in weakening checks and balances is the undermining or dismantling constitutional safeguards. Using their legislative majority, new authoritarians pass laws that reinterpret or rewrite key constitutional rules, targeting judicial appointments, the separation of powers, and executive authority. These measures allow them to expand executive power, override judicial rulings, and erode the independence of oversight institutions. In doing so, they weaken both political opposition and civil society, ensuring that resistance is systematically neutralized.
2. Stacking the judiciary
High courts are a key target for elected authoritarians. They use a range of tactics to undermine judicial independence, including packing courts with loyalists, interfering with judicial appointments, creating parallel judicial networks, and manipulating public opinion to discredit independent judges.
3. Co-opting or coercing independent institutions
These leaders target agencies and bodies related to transparency, accountability, and enforcement. Authoritarians use various strategies, such as promoting loyalists, sidelining independent bureaucrats via punishment postings and transfers, and manipulating appointment terms. They also employ financial controls to restrict the functionality of these institutions and resort to traditional pressures like intimidation, harassment, bribery, and other practices.
4. Exploiting emergency powers
Authoritarians exploit emergency powers, crises, or security threats to expand executive authority and bypass constitutional checks. They may declare states of emergency, enact emergency decrees or legislation, and centralize decision-making under the guise of protecting national security or public safety. These measures often result in the erosion of civil liberties and the concentration of power in the hands of the executive.
5. Undermining competitive elections & electoral institutions
They also take steps to restrict or undermine the electoral process by targeting their political opponents through both legal and extralegal measures, including the dissolution of opposition parties and the disqualification of opposing candidates. They also target institutions like election bodies in charge of conducting elections. For instance, authoritarians can control electoral timing and procedures by packing these bodies with loyalists.
6. Taking over the media
Authoritarians strategically seize control of the media to dominate the narrative, suppress dissent, and discredit the opposition. They use state influence, legal pressure, and financial leverage to weaken independent outlets while building a loyalist media ecosystem. They achieve this by acquiring or influencing private media, subjecting independent journalism to regulatory scrutiny and monetary penalties, and turning state-aligned outlets into propaganda tools. By consolidating media control, authoritarians ensure that only their version of reality prevails.
7. Personalizing the Party
New authoritarians reshape their parties around themselves and weaken internal party checks, ensuring that the party serves as a vehicle for their rule rather than an institution with democratic norms. They limit internal dissent by promoting loyalists who owe their political careers to the leader rather than the party's ideology or principles. They eliminate horizontal constraints that could challenge their authority by eroding internal mechanisms for leadership selection, decision-making, and accountability. Over time, the party loses its autonomy, becoming fully subordinate to the leader's will.
Who's done it?
Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu
The Subtle Art of Weaking the Separation
In Israel, where the judiciary serves as the primary check on executive power, Prime Minister Netanyahu's far-right government has pushed judicial reforms designed to weaken oversight. Framed as measures to enhance democratic governance, the reforms—approved in 2023—sought to limit the Supreme Court's ability to strike down laws and grant the ruling coalition greater control over judicial appointments, effectively removing key constraints on government power. In January 2024, the Supreme Court struck down the law, reaffirming its role as a safeguard against executive overreach. However, Netanyahu's far-right government remains determined to push forward with judicial changes, keeping the battle over Israel's judiciary far from over.
"The decisions should be left to the government that is elected by the people. Let the people decide. If you make the wrong decisions, you will be booted out."
El Salvador: Nayib Bukele
'Cleaning up' the House
Bukele has consolidated power by leveraging genuine popularity while systematically bending institutions and rewriting laws to his advantage. In 2021, immediately after securing a legislative supermajority, his government purged the entire Constitutional Court and the Attorney General. Within weeks, the newly appointed court—stacked with his loyalists—issued a controversial ruling allowing Bukele to seek reelection, despite six constitutional articles explicitly prohibiting it. In 2023, Bukele adjusted the electoral system to his advantage, passing reforms that undermined proportionality, ensuring overrepresentation for his party while effectively sidelining the opposition. He framed these moves as a necessary reform to clean up institutions, dismissing critics outright.
"With all due respect: we are cleaning our house ... and that is none of your business."
Poland: Law and Justice Party (PiS)
Stacking and Undermining the Judiciary
PiS has used a broad set of tactics to seize control of Poland's judiciary, particularly the Constitutional Tribunal. In addition to defying Tribunal rulings, PiS has pursued a multipronged strategy that includes blocking opposition-backed judges, packing the court with loyalists, and passing laws that undermine judicial independence. Beyond the Constitutional Tribunal, PiS has moved to reshape the Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), the body responsible for judicial appointments. By stacking KRS with loyalists, the party has secured disproportionate control over judicial appointments and promotions. Additionally, PiS lowered the retirement age for Supreme Court judges, forcing out numerous judges and creating an Extraordinary Chamber with the power to punish judges for their rulings—fostering a climate of fear and compliance within the judiciary.
"There is indeed a problem with the rule of law in Poland. It is our duty to ensure that rulings which violate the law are quickly overturned, and the judges who issued them brought to disciplinary responsibility and, consequently, removed from the profession." Jarosław Kaczyński
Nicaragua: Daniel Ortega
Erosion of Constitutional Safeguards
In 2014, President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega and the ruling party passed a massive Constitutional amendment. Term limits on the presidency were removed, allowing him to seek re-election indefinitely. Other amendments included removing the minimum number of votes to be elected (35% of total votes cast), allowing the president to issue legally enforceable decrees, and reinforcing the president's grip on the Police and Army. More recently, a "Foreign Agents" law was passed, which dissolved more than 5000 civil society organizations. Besides, a "Cybercrime Law" allows the government to prosecute citizens who post negative messages on social media. Around 500 people have been imprisoned for political reasons in the last four years.
"Those who are in jail are the sons of bitches of the American imperialists"
What can democrats learn?
1. Be Prepared For The Worst
The authoritarian approach to dismantling checks and balances adopts an all-encompassing strategy that looks at institutions collectively and develops individual tactics to undermine each of them. Working with a potential worst-case scenario regarding institutional atrophy allows groups to stay alert and develop counter strategies to fight back.
2. Build Coalitions
Given the scale of authoritarians' all-pervasive approach to democratic undermining, potential victims of such efforts must build coalitions to boost their collective capacity to fight back. From opposition forces uniting to building bridges between the political class, civil society, the media, and institutions like the judiciary, a united front has a better chance of countering authoritarian attempts.
3. Anticipate Legal Loopholes And Build Counter-Strategies
Authoritarian regimes exploit legal loopholes and wield influence over institutions like the judiciary. To counter this, anticipate these moves and prepare strategies to block them before they take hold. Have legal defenses ready and prepare the media to respond quickly, exposing abuses and rallying public opinion against unconstitutional actions.
4. Empower Civil Servants And Institutions To Defend Themselves
The civil service can play a crucial role in resisting authoritarian tactics. It is essential to support and encourage key institutions, such as courts and oversight bodies, to defend their mandates. Supreme Courts and other independent institutions have often been at the forefront of standing up to authoritarian overreach. Civil servants, including judges, can be vital by staying committed to their responsibilities and refusing to bow to coercion or intimidation.
5. When You Have The Chance, Don't Be Like Them
When in power or given the opportunity to make appointments, do not emulate authoritarian tactics by appointing loyalists or weakening oversight institutions. Instead, prioritize building strong, independent institutions that hold power accountable—even when it is politically inconvenient. Upholding the integrity of democratic systems is essential to ensuring their resilience against future threats.
Learn more
D-Hub Resources
- D-Hub. 2024. "Influencer-in-Chief." The Fight for Democracy Chronicles, Volume 4.
Other Resources
- Applebaum, Anne. 2024. "Autocracy, Inc."
- Franz, Erica; Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Joe Wright. 2024. "The Origins of Elected Strongmen."
- Guriev, Serge & Daniel Treisman. 2022. "Spin Dictators."
- Navot, Suzie. 2024. "An Overview of Israel's 'Judicial Overhaul'" Israel Law Review
- Protect Democracy. 2022. "The Authoritarian Playbook."
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