Courts and the judicial erosion of democracy in Latin America

How are courts used to erode democracy? Using the literature on democratic backsliding and judicial politics as a theoretical framework, in this work, I show the path of how courts are captured by incumbents and then used to subvert democracy. Comparing some cases from the Latin American region, I contend that the judicial erosion of democracy unfolds in three interactive steps: incumbents (a) lead public attacks on the judiciary; (b) push judicial purges; and/or (c) pack the courts, then they use the new weakened high court to undermine democratic institutions legally and harass political opponents.