Research
The GCDC conducts world-leading research on democratic governance, the rule of law, and constitutional resilience.
Constitutional Resilience and Democratic Decline
Our focus on constitutional resilience seeks to understand how constitutional structure, principles, norms, and institutions can preserve and promote a genuinely democratic form of constitutionalism. While much of the constitutional law research in the last fifty years has been concerned with the achievement and consolidation of democratic constitutionalism, the present moment demands attention to its fortification against subtle corrosive pressures. One such pressure is the exploitation of constitutional structures and law itself to undermine egalitarianism and democratic government, sometimes referred to as ‘autocratic legalism’ or ‘abusive constitutionalism’. In their discussion of the ‘banality of authoritarianism’, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt observe that anti-democratic extremism finds expression through phenomenon such as exploiting gaps in the constitutional architecture, exploiting legal powers previous regulated by convention, and selective enforcement of the law. Similarly, Nancy Bermeo considers executive aggrandisement to be a form of democratic backsliding that ‘occurs when elected executives weaken checks on executive power one by one, undertaking a series of institutional changes that hamper the power of opposition forces to challenge executive preferences’.
Our Research Strategy and Workstreams
The GCDC advances its research strategy through the following workstreams:
Periods of democratic decay are often marked by attacks on the body of laws, principles, norms, and institutions of democratic liberal constitutionalism. Autocratising tactics range from radical constitutional change through constitutional amendments, to subtler forms of constitutional erosion characterised by a weakening of norms and institutions without formal change.
Constitutional decline and the rise of authoritarianism in elected democracies is largely occurring through these latter incremental and multifocal changes. Thus, not only identifying the mechanics of constitutional erosion but exploring methods for its redress are critical priorities for constitutional studies. While timely intervention to restore the checks and balances of democratic constitutionalism is important, the process is often not straightforward. There are epistemic challenges in identifying the changes that require reversal and political challenges in implementing the necessary institutional reforms. Recognising the urgency and complexity of this area of research, the Centre aims to serve as a hub for interdisciplinary scholarship that addresses these challenges.
Members working in the stream: Erin Delaney, Jeff King
What becomes of the public that constitutes a democracy when it is mapped, monitored, analysed, and governed via digital technology? This is the question at heart of the Centre’s research stream on ‘Data and Democracy’. We look at technical surveillance, profiling based on communications, the use of sensors and devices data, and facial scanning in public, among other mechanisms of data collection, and explore the effects of these on personal privacy, freedom of expression, and freedom of association. What trade-offs and political formations arise when the design, functionality, and data generated by digital technology intersect with democratic norms and constitutional values?
Members working in the stream: Bernard Keenan, Orla Lynskey, Michael Veale
Some departments of the government are politically accountable and others are not. In different situations, and for different reasons, we might prefer dependence on, or independence from, the political executive. What are the political expectations and constitutional roles of ambassadors, central bankers, spies, prosecutors, or judges? We are fortunate to have as a Centre member, UCL Associate Professor Ewan Smith, a leader in this study of dependence, which is a central topic of his forthcoming monograph.
Questions about dependence animate debate about guarantor institutions, unelected power, democratic accountability and the ‘deep state’. It is a central feature of the literature on authoritarianism. Our work asks how the democratic constitution should regulate public administration, and whether the centralisation of executive power has changed this. This research stream studies aspects of the interaction between politics, the political executive, and the civil service, across a range of jurisdictions.
Members working in the stream: Erin Delaney, Megan Donaldson, Tom Hickman, Ewan Smith
The principles of judicial independence and the rule of law act as critical checks on arbitrary government and authoritarianism. Scholars at the GCDC and the Faculty of Laws have a long track-record of important work in these areas, and continuing research will focus on strengthening the rule of law and assessing how judicial independence and judicial legitimacy can be enhanced or reclaimed in the face of democratic and constitutional erosion.
Members working in the stream: Erin Delaney, Jeff King, Luis Soto Tamayo
We welcome visitors and partners who are working on research on the above themes.
View our members’ publications from academic year 2024–25.
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