Authors

Darina Malová¹; Max Steuer¹;  ¹ Comenius University,

Discussion

Studies of illiberalization via constitutional change focus on illiberal regimes, neglecting cases where, despite a political context leaning to illiberalism, constitutional change has not fueled illiberalization. To bridge this gap, we argue for recognizing the political context of constitutional changes. Our conceptual framework for identifying illiberal features of constitutions and their amendments establishes the nexus between constitutional change and political context, the latter conceptualized via the self-declared intentions of political elites. Empirically, the framework focuses on the text of the constitution. its amendments, and their explanatory reports. These sources help detect so-called ‘illiberal determinations’ of political elites promoting constitutional change, that is, ideological commitment to illiberalism essential for vulnerability towards illiberalization. We subsequently apply this framework to the Slovak Constitution, characterized by high degree of flexibility and yet not embedded in an illiberal regime. We argue that the illiberal features of this Constitution have not translated into illiberalization due to the Slovak political elites’ (so far) missing ‘illiberal determinations’. This could help uncover how the normalization of practices of bargaining over constitutional changes makes constitutionalism unequipped to act as ‘speed bump’ for illiberal transformations led by ideologically driven political leaders.