The Erosion of Constitutionalism via Constitutional Entrepreneurship: Lessons from Slovakia

Abstract The 2023 Slovak general election resulted in an illiberal coalition keen to transform the political regime following its Hungarian neighbour's post‐2010 example. Using the Slovak case, this article shows the key role of political party leaders’ constitutional entrepreneurship in the erosion of constitutionalism. Constitutional entrepreneurship seeks to exploit momentary partisan arrangements to achieve changes to the constitution. Emboldened by the flexibility of the Slovak Constitution, party leaders across the party spectrum engaged in constitutional entrepreneurship. However, several consequential changes to the text went in an illiberal direction, designed not to improve constitutionalism but to imprint short‐term policy preferences in the constitution and to boost popularity. Illiberal partisans secured these changes via ad hoc deals in parliament. More than illiberalising the constitution, these deals between strange bedfellows converted the constitutional text into a playground, eroding Slovakia's constitutionalism as a result.