Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
13 March 2025, 1:00 pm–2:30 pm
This event was organised by the UCL Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism.
Speaker: Professor Margit Cohn (Hebrew University | Faculty of Law)
Chair: Professor Jeff King (UCL Laws)
About the talk
In recent years, many democracies have experienced a gradual erosion of their core democratic values, a process often called 'democratic backsliding'. This shift, also known as democratic retrogression or a move toward autocracy, tends to happen step by step rather than all at once. Scholars studying this trend have identified patterns and key factors that contribute to the weakening of democratic institutions.
In this talk, following these typologies, Professor Cohn will present an explanatory theory of the moves towards compromised democracy. She will then apply the theory to the ongoing backsliding of Israel’s democracy, recently downgraded from a ‘liberal’ to an ‘electoral democracy’ (V-Dem Democracy Report 2024).
The talk focuses on the ongoing attempts to politicize the judicial appointment process, considered against the background of the total absence of other mechanisms, to be found in most democracies (e.g. bicameral legislatures and the membership in transnational organizations that serve to constrain). A constitutional crisis has emerged: the Justice Minister practically sets aside judicial rulings requiring the appointment of judges, and attacks the attorney general, the government’s legal advisor, for its so-called ‘leftist’ leanings.
If time permits, the talk will address the emerging state of affairs in the US, following Donald Trump’s reelection as president and his recent orders and declarations. Discussion of possible stays of these processes is relegated to the Q&A part of this talk.
13 March 2025, 1:00 pm–2:30 pm
This event was organised by the UCL Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism.
Speaker: Professor Margit Cohn (Hebrew University | Faculty of Law)
Chair: Professor Jeff King (UCL Laws)
About the talk
In recent years, many democracies have experienced a gradual erosion of their core democratic values, a process often called 'democratic backsliding'. This shift, also known as democratic retrogression or a move toward autocracy, tends to happen step by step rather than all at once. Scholars studying this trend have identified patterns and key factors that contribute to the weakening of democratic institutions.
In this talk, following these typologies, Professor Cohn will present an explanatory theory of the moves towards compromised democracy. She will then apply the theory to the ongoing backsliding of Israel’s democracy, recently downgraded from a ‘liberal’ to an ‘electoral democracy’ (V-Dem Democracy Report 2024).
The talk focuses on the ongoing attempts to politicize the judicial appointment process, considered against the background of the total absence of other mechanisms, to be found in most democracies (e.g. bicameral legislatures and the membership in transnational organizations that serve to constrain). A constitutional crisis has emerged: the Justice Minister practically sets aside judicial rulings requiring the appointment of judges, and attacks the attorney general, the government’s legal advisor, for its so-called ‘leftist’ leanings.
If time permits, the talk will address the emerging state of affairs in the US, following Donald Trump’s reelection as president and his recent orders and declarations. Discussion of possible stays of these processes is relegated to the Q&A part of this talk.
