Democratic Erosion University Course Student Blog

Students enrolled in our course are encouraged to write for the course blog, and to read and comment on posts from students at other participating universities. The blog offers students the opportunity to analyze current events through the lens of the theory and case studies they engage with through the course.

The Russia-Ukraine War Bodes Poorly for Democracy, But Not in the Way You Think

The Russia-Ukraine War is a serious threat to global democracy through the growing wave of isolationism in the United States, an entity that has typically been at the forefront of fighting authoritarianism across the world.

Read More

The Trump Administration’s Attack on USAID

The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle USAID, increase concerns about democratic backsliding as it could result in a trend with the executive undermining institutional legitimacy.

Read More

Does Nayib Bukele Present a Compelling Challenge to Democratic Values?

Underlining political discussion here in the United States is a presumption that democracy is the best system by which we can organise civil society. I should preface that I, too, subscribe to this notion, and have not yet come across anything that could compel me to...
Read More

Blog Post 1

Feb 13, 2025 |

One reading I’d like to touch on is Chapter One of Levitsky and Ziblatt’s book, “How Democracies Die”. At first, I didn’t understand why the Aesop passage was included in...

read more

Ecuador on the Edge

Oct 10, 2024 |

Once considered among the most stable countries in Latin America, Ecuador has been rocked by a surge of gang-related violence in the last few years. The homicide rate has more than quadrupled,...

read more