{"id":211008,"date":"2026-05-13T11:02:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T09:02:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.budrich.de\/?post_type=product&#038;p=211008"},"modified":"2026-05-19T16:22:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:22:48","slug":"constitutions-under-pressure","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/shop.budrich.de\/en\/produkt\/constitutions-under-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Constitutions under Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In an era marked by a global retreat from democracy, this book investigates \u2018constitutional capture\u2019, defined as the systematic and intentional weakening of constitutional checks and balances, to explain how constitutional change facilitates autocratization. Through innovative comparison of Poland, Hungary, Turkey, and Egypt, it details how incumbents subvert judicial independence to consolidate power. This subjugated judiciary then becomes a key facilitator, dismantling executive constraints and suppressing fundamental rights, from LGBTQ+ rights in Poland to collective ownership of national soil in Egypt, illuminating the mutually reinforcing relationship between constitutional manipulation and autocratization.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The book outlines a process of constitutional capture, whereby incumbents first fill constitutional courts with loyalists, subsequently restricting judicial review and undermining judicial self-governance. The result is a subjugated judiciary that actively facilitates further autocratisation by dismantling executive constraints and obscuring rights infringements, in a process that the author terms \u201csnowballing unconstitutionality\u201d. Drawing on Giovanni Sartori&#8217;s conception of constitutionalism as limited government, the analysis incorporates insights from political science, sociology and legal studies. Empirically, it draws on legal monitors, NGO reports and expert interviews from four case studies, offering a comparative framework that can be applied much more widely.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The author:<\/strong><br \/><strong>Dr. \u017dilvinas \u0160vedkauskas<\/strong> is Assistant Professor at Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University, Lithuania.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The subject:<\/strong><br \/>Politics<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an era marked by a global retreat from democracy, this book investigates \u2018constitutional capture\u2019, defined as the systematic and intentional weakening of constitutional checks and balances, to explain how constitutional change facilitates autocratization. Through innovative comparison of Poland, Hungary, Turkey, and Egypt, it details how incumbents subvert judicial independence to consolidate power. This subjugated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":210956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[23842,7585,12497,7636],"product_tag":[59164,49109,45157,59165,24277],"class_list":{"0":"post-211008","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_author-zilvinas-svedkauskas","7":"product_cat-fachbereiche","8":"product_cat-politik","9":"product_cat-open-access","10":"product_cat-our-english-publications","11":"product_tag-democratic-backsliding","12":"product_tag-constitutional-change","13":"product_tag-process-tracing","14":"product_tag-regime-change","15":"product_tag-authoritarianism","16":"pa_verlag-budrich-academic-press","17":"wpbf-post","20":"instock","21":"taxable","22":"shipping-taxable","23":"purchasable","24":"product-type-variable"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Constitutions under Pressure<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u0160vedkauskas, How Patient Autocrats Capture the Courts and Disassemble Checks and Balances. Barbara Budrich Academic Press. ISBN: 978-3-96665-122-6. Erscheinungstermin: 19.10.2026.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shop.budrich.de\/en\/product-2\/constitutions-under-pressure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Constitutions under Pressure\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u0160vedkauskas, How Patient Autocrats Capture the Courts and Disassemble Checks and Balances. Barbara Budrich Academic Press. ISBN: 978-3-96665-122-6. 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