András Sajó, Ruling by cheating. Governance in Illiberal Democracy

The main focus of András Sajó’s book is the relation between constitutional and illiberal democracy and the origins of the latter’s popularity. The author describes the populist technique of “ruling by cheating” by showing – on the example of Poland and Hungary among others – how populists use liberal democratic concepts in order to underpin their legitimacy as well as to strengthen their power, build their own elites, take over autonomous institutions and discriminate against minorities. Another source of populism’s success is the crisis of Western democracy, reflected both in adopting populists’ policies or rhetoric, and in the decline of the idea of individual freedom in favor of increasing dependence on the state.