Can Abusive Borrowing Be Stopped?

Abstract

This chapter concludes by offering thoughts on how policymakers and scholars might design better responses to combat abusive constitutional borrowing, or the repurposing of liberal democratic designs, doctrines, and concepts for anti-democratic ends. It suggests a set of ways in which international and transnational monitoring might be made more sophisticated in recognizing and responding to the problem. It also highlights how liberal democratic theorists and practitioners might seek to design and promulgate norms that are more robust against the sometimes substantial threat of abuse. Finally, it concludes by considering how the pervasiveness of mimicry—the use of liberal democratic forms for anti-democratic goals—informs debates about liberal democratic constitutionalism and democratic erosion. It suggests that a more open contestation about the content of liberal democratic norms, bounded mainly by respect for the democratic minimum core, may be the best antidote against the threat posed by abusive constitutional borrowing.