“Is democracy killing the rule of law? How populism undermines the authority of law”

The message of genuine populists is that they are predestined to identify the true interests of the people. From this perspective, an independent law is a barrier that prevents the direct and unrestricted realisation of these interests. When populists are in power, they logically try to undermine the authority of law, often by instrumentalising democratic procedures and formal legality for their own purposes. In doing so, they can rely on a potential of “democracy despisers” with an already existing fundamental scepticism towards the existing democracies.

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