Efficient Secrets

In this season of the Efficient Secrets podcast, I’m going to be talking to experts at the University of Oxford, along with some other guests, about how constitutional studies can help us understand democratic backsliding – the increasingly prevalent process by which consolidated democracies begin to degrade the rights and freedoms supposedly guaranteed by their constitutions.This podcast is part of a broader project, the Constitutional Studies Forum, which will bring together scholars of law and politics to understand the challenges faced by liberal constitutional democracies across the world today.In this first episode, I sat down with the founders of the Forum – Professor Petra Schleiter from the department of politics, and Professor Nick Barber from the faculty of law – to talk about aims of the forum and why we’ve chosen democratic backsliding as our first topic.Music: Old Street by ORANGE PRODUCTION, licenced by Tunetank

This episode explores some of the fundamental foundations of the constitutional democratic state with experts in political and constitutional theory. What basic rights and duties of citizens are entailed by the concept of a democratic constitution? Do democratic constitutions have to resemble an ‘ideal’ type? Can the concept of democracy be applied to entities other than states, such as multinational federations? And how can we build the redress of historic injustices into modern constitutions?Music: Old Street by ORANGE PRODUCTION, licenced by Tunetank

The second episode looks at the political process of backsliding and what happens to constitutions when this occurs, with experts on political institutions and the theory of (de)democratisation. What is democratic backsliding, why does it start, and when does it lead to transitions to authoritarianism? What kind of political regimes are more resistant to the impairment of democracy? And what can democracies do to prevent backsliding from occurring in the first place?Music: Old Street by ORANGE PRODUCTION, licenced by Tunetank

Where democracies have collapsed, or never existed, constitutions and laws continue to exist and may still provide some protection to citizens. On the other hand, they may be subverted to serve the ends of autocrats. Can constitutional law still be a force for democracy in military regimes? How are constitutional norms and conventions shaped by non-democratic contexts? Do courts respond to public opinion even where the government is no longer elected?

One of the key roles of constitutional law is to provide a strong underpinning for human rights protections. But what role do human rights play in building robust democratic institutions? Are human rights an aspect of democratic politics, or a precursor? And what happens to human rights protections when democratic backsliding begins to occur? This episode looks at these questions with expert practitioners and theorists in constitutional and human rights law.With Kate O’Regan, Nick Barber and Richard Ekins.

The United Kingdom is one of the worlds longest standing democracies, with an even longer tradition of constitutional government and the rule of law. However, in recent years increasing questions have been raised about whether British democracy is in decline. In the first of two episodes on this topic, we look at issues around the rule of law in the UK; from issues causes by the removal of the supranational framework of the EU, to attacks on Parliament and proposed reforms to judicial review and the Human Rights Act. Is the UK weaking its democracy?

The United Kingdom is one of the worlds longest standing democracies, with an even longer tradition of constitutional government and the rule of law. However, in recent years increasing questions have been raised about whether British democracy is in decline.  In the second of two episodes on this topic, we explore decreasing public trust in politics, the weakening of the party system, and increasing threats to the territorial integrity of the state. To what extent is UK backsliding related to these trends? We discuss with experts in British and comparative politics.Guests: Jane Green, Ben Jackson, Ben Ansell

An important aspect of backsliding is understanding how individuals with corrupt motives gain and then abuse their power to undermine democracy. So, in this special episode, recorded at a seminar earlier this year, I spoke to Brian Klaas – author of the new book Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us. Brian’s book draws on over 500 interviews with people from presidents and philanthropists to rebels, cultists, and dictators to answer the question of whether power corrupts, or are corrupt people simply drawn to power.Co-hosted with Dr Lauren Burgeno.

In this, the last episode of our first season, we’ll look at one final issue which bears on the question of backsliding – how democratic constitutions deal with the secret state. Even in democratic states some aspects of state activity are difficult or impossible to make fully transparent and accountable to the public. This is because some actions must necessarily be covert in order to be effective – from the operation of intelligence services to military operations and sensitive weapons systems . Governments may need to be able to protect certain information about this from public release, temporarily or - even more problematically - indefinitely. Can such restrictions ever be justified from the perspective of democratic states, and if so, where does necessary information security cross the line into secret states which exist beyond democracy?Guest: Prof. Harold Hongju Koh