In: V-Dem Policy Brief (42)

Judicial processes can also help stop backsliding such as in South Korea in both 2019 and again right now in 2025. In general, a strong judiciary and more democratic experience make democratic breakdown less likely (Boese et al. 2021). Legislatures, by contrast, can do very little to halt autocratization once it has started (Lührmann 2021), and attempts to remove the autocratizing incumbent through irregular means are most likely to lead to a democratic breakdown (Cleary and Öztürk 2022).

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