I explore the concept of militant democracy in the context of what appear to be persistent threats to the democratic order. I begin with reconstruction of militant democracy, intended to distinguish and identify historical manifestations of the concept. I then trace and document a core element of the concept — party regulation — across historical constitutions. I then turn to a particularly acute threat to democracy in developing societies — executive term-limit evasion. Term-limit evasion accelerates a pernicious negative cycle in which constitutional non-compliance begets constitutional weakness, which in turn begets subsequent non-compliance. Such a negative feedback loop is a core problem in law. Militant democracy, the logic of which implies the entrenchment and protection of term limits, would potentially disrupt such negative cycles.

Our 2020 Annual Conference was scheduled to be held at the University of Wrocław in Poland on July 9-11, 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our next Annual Conference will take place from July 8-10, 2021. The conference, "ICON•S Mundo", will be held online. Details regarding the organization of the 2021 Conference will follow soon.
Join ICON•S