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Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the democratic ascendency of the post-Soviet era is under severe challenge. While fragile democracies in Eastern Europe, Africa, and East Asia face renewed threats, the world has witnessed the failed democratic promises of the Arab Spring. What lessons can be drawn from these struggles? What conditions or institutions are needed to prevent the collapse of democracy? This book argues that the most significant antidote to authoritarianism is the presence of strong constitutional courts. Distinct in the third wave of democratization, these courts serve as a bulwark against vulnerability to external threats as well as internal consolidation of power. Particular attention is given to societies riven by deep divisions of race, religion, or national background, for which the courts have become pivotal actors in allowing democracy to take root.
List of contents
Introduction: the burden of modern democracy; Part I. Militant Democracy: 1. The American paradox; 2. The boundaries of democracy; 3. Types of threats; 4. Responses to antidemocratic threats; 5. Judging militant democracy; Part II. Competitive Democracy: 6. Giving up power; 7. The promise of constitutional democracy; 8. Transition in South Africa; 9. The era of constitutional courts; 10. The constitutional bargain; 11. Can law protect democracy?; 12. Constitutionalism in the time of fragile democracies; Epilogue: democratic objectives.
About the author
Samuel Issacharoff is the Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law. A pioneer in the field of law of the political process, he is the author of more than 100 articles, books, and other academic works, including the seminal The Law of Democracy, 4th edition (with Pamela S. Karlan and Richard H. Pildes, 2012). Issacharoff is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Summary
This book examines how constitutional courts protect fragile democratic states arising in the wake of authoritarian rule or amidst deep societal divisions of race, religion, or national background. It covers challenges to East Asian, African, and former Soviet democracies, as well as new developments from the Arab Spring.
