While leaders around the world fight the spread of the coronavirus, they're amassing sweeping new powers. As legislatures limit or suspend activities in the name of social distancing, many of the norms that define democracy - elections, deliberation and debate, checks and balances - have been put on indefinite hold.

The speed and breadth of the transformation is unsettling political scientists, government watchdogs and rights groups. Many concede that emergency declarations and streamlining government decision-making are necessary responses to a global health threat. But they question how readily leaders will give up the powers they've accrued when the coronavirus eventually subsides.

"This is a situation where it's far too easy to make arguments for undue interference with civil rights and liberties," said Tomas Valasek, a Slovak lawmaker.

The country that has attracted the most notice for a lurch away from democratic reforms is Hungary, which last month handed Prime Minister Viktor Orban near-dictatorial powers. Orban was already facing the prospect of sanctions from the European Union over concerns that he had packed courts with loyalists, closed down opposition media outlets and changed the country's constitution to ensure that he remains in power. The new measure gives him authority to legislate by decree, free from parliamentary oversight, for as long as he deems necessary to fight the coronavirus, and it imposes steep penalties for spreading "false information" - a step critics fear will be used to further impede the opposition.