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Essays on the political economy of nondemocratic practices

This dissertation examines nondemocratic practices through the lens of political economics. Politicized courts are pivotal to guaranteeing the impunity of nondemocratic actions, and in Chapter 1 I start by documenting how the takeover of courts systematically affects the average citizen who uses courts to solve a dispute. I then proceed to studying campaign finance and its effects on legislative voting. In Chapter 2, I examine whether legislators change their votes based on the monetary influence of private interests. This would entail that legislators favor powerful interest groups while ignoring the constituents who voted them into office. Finally, in Chapter 3 I examine partisan redistricting and voter turnout. Also known as gerrymandering, partisan redistricting weakens voters' ability to elect their representatives by protecting incumbents and diluting the electoral strength of minorities.