Book Panel: The Specter of Dictatorship: Judicial Enabling of Presidential Power

Professor Driesen will serve as the chairman and set out the main arguments in the book. The Specter of Dictatorship shows that elected chief executives almost always drive the erosion of democracies. It argues that in Poland, Turkey, and Hungary centralization of power in the chief executive and his party has played a key role in undermining democracy. In Turkey and Hungary abuse of emergency power also played a role in hastening democratic decline. Court packing, which occurred in all three countries, primary serves to legitimate the centralization of power in the chief executive. It explains that the United States Supreme Court in recent decades has interpreted the U.S. Constitution to centralize power in the chief executive and to enhance emergency powers, thereby enhancing risks to democracy's survival. It provides recommendations to reform U.S. separation of powers jurisprudence based on its analysis of the problems the comparative analysis reveals.

Witold Plowiec -Associate Professor and Head of the Constitutional Law Department at the Faculty of Law and Administration, Adam Mickiewcz University in Poznan, and as an assistant to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal since 2006 - will appear as a commentator on the book.

Dean Oder will serve as a commentator on the book.

Professor Katz will serve as a commentator on The Specter of Dictatorship.