Rebuilding the Rule of Law in the Era of Democratic Backsliding

What lessons can be learned from rule of law promotion efforts and how might they be modified to rebuild the rule of law in the era of democratic backsliding? Because many third wave transition countries within the former Soviet sphere and Latin America have experienced attacks on the judiciary, it is paramount to assess the appropriateness of existing rule of law promotion efforts in the current era. Approaches based on the work of civil society and those based on conditionality, monitoring, and sanctions provided by international organizations with some modifications may be more beneficial in the current era than those emphasizing law and development and socialization and education. Modifying laws and constitutions to change institutions subverted by prior more autocratic leaning leaders may be necessary but must be conducted with additional safeguards. Based on the analysis, the paper argues that any efforts to rebuild the rule of law must be sensitive to a countries' party politics, level of polarization, and government stability, have input from policymakers and citizens within countries, be careful in the manner used to introduce new reforms, and accumulate evidence about which rule of law efforts work.