After many waves of democratisation a new type of constitutional transformation has become the focus of scholarly attention. Some researchers claim that the current erosion of constitutionalism can be understood better if the phenomenon is compared to the twentieth century dictatorships. Many others argue that what is happening today is a self-destruction of liberal democracy through democratic procedures and under the formal rule of law. This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the new system, and offers another approach. It shows that in a normative sense democracy today is the only legitimate constitutional system. That is why a key attribute of contemporary authoritarianism, a sui generis system between constitutional democracy and dictatorship, is a pretence of democracy. The article suggests that mechanisms of pretence can be identified with the help of constitutional markers, which allow a reliable distinction between constitutional democracy and authoritarianism. Constitutional markers can be revealed on two levels: first, by a systematic account of the constitutional text and practice and second, by exploring the deep structure of the false justification of the system.

中文翻译：

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威权主义的宪法标志

经过许多次民主化浪​​潮之后，新型的宪法转型已成为学者关注的焦点。一些研究人员声称，如果将这种现象与二十世纪的独裁统治进行比较，则可以更好地理解当前的宪政侵蚀。许多其他人认为，今天正在发生的事情是通过民主程序和在正式法治下对自由民主的自我毁灭。本文旨在促进对新系统的理解，并提供了另一种方法。它表明，从规范的意义上讲，当今的民主是唯一合法的宪法制度。这就是为什么当代威权主义的一个关键属性，即伪装成民主的东西，它是立宪民主制与专政制之间的特殊制度。该文章建议，可以在宪法标记的帮助下识别假装机制，从而可以在宪政民主与专制主义之间进行可靠的区分。宪法标记可以在两个层面上揭示：首先，通过对宪法文本和实践的系统描述；其次，通过探索系统错误辩解的深层结构。