Author: Andrew O’Donohue | Journal of Democracy

Andrew O’Donohue is the Arleen Carlson and Edna Nelson Graduate Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, a doctoral candidate in government at Harvard University, and a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

April 2026, Volume 37, Issue 2

How Courts Undermine Democracy

Andrew O’Donohue

The judiciary is widely assumed to defend democracy. Yet in reality, even when independent of elected governments, courts can endanger democracy—sometimes by enabling executives and sometimes by aggressively fighting them.

Is Israel Losing Its Last Democratic Safeguard?

Oded Haklai
Andrew O’Donohue

The country’s mass protests were its last democratic guardrail. But Israel’s wartime goals have become a higher priority than keeping Netanyahu in check.