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.

These are student blog posts written by student participants in the Democratic Erosion Course. These posts were not written by nor represent the views of the Democratic Erosion Consortium.

Food Security is Rooted Abroad

Global fertilizer supply chains connect geopolitical events abroad to food production at home in ways most consumers don’t see.

The Meaning of Silence : What the moment of silence for Melissa Hortman says about American democracy

On June 14, 2025, the lives of Melissa Hortman who was a House speaker in Minnesota and her husband Mark were taken in what authorities believe to be a politically motivated act of violence. The same day Senator John Hoffman and his wife were also shot and...

The New Future of Warfare? How Social Media is Inflating Tensions Between the U.S. and Iran.

Social media is moving to the forefront of the ongoing tensions between the U.S. and Iran, with political elites from both sides of the conflict using social media as a weapon to fabricate narratives and generate AI videos to publicly denounce the actions of one...

Copy-and-Paste: Why Latin America is Using El Salvador as an Anti-Crime Template

Nov 14, 2025 | University of Georgia

Mano dura translates to “iron fist,” broadly defined as strong-armed, anti-crime policies that much of Latin America has implemented over recent decades in response to...

Controlling the Narrative and Weakening Democracy in Hungary

Nov 13, 2025 | University of Pittsburgh

In 2023, the Hungarian government passed the Defense of National Sovereignty Act, a law that grants the newly established Sovereignty Protection Office the authority to...

Cuban American Partisan Attachment and Antipathy

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

William Kelly’s article, “The Cuban revolution explains why younger Cuban Americans supported Trump” discusses how the most recent Cuban U.S. immigrants were projected to be more liberal than their...

Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill is a Pipeline to the Radical Right

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis assumed office in early 2019 and has quickly come to dominant both state and national level politics. From his harsh resistance to COVID-19 restrictions to his blatant...

Hungarian Democracy: The Gradual Decline of Democratic Norms

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

On April 3rd, 2022, Hungary held elections for the National Assembly and for the prime minister. The nation’s incumbent leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, declared victory1. Widely seen as a...

The Conservative Political Action Conference Threatens Liberal Democracy

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was held in Orlando, Florida on February 24th through February 27th, 2022. CPAC is one of the largest and most influential conventions for...

To Fund or Not to Fund? Police Rhetoric and Democratic Backsliding

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

Perceptions on crime rates among American citizens radically differ from the truth of the matter.[i] Who is to blame for this widespread misinformation? The very people Americans hire to reduce the...

Extremism Is a Global Threat: Here is Why

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

“How far right extremism is becoming a global threat” published by The Economist details the ways in which radicalization has infected numerous places around the world—such as the United States,...

Social Media: The Digital Echo Chamber That Is Eroding Democracy

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

Social media has successfully accomplished its goal of making connections and spreading ideas and information. Billions of users across the globe partake in social media daily, with multiple...

The Impact of Racial Reparations on Perceived Status Threat of the White American

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

Racial Reparations aim to close the wealth gap between minorities and the rest of the population, that stems from slavery and the systematic injustices that followed. However, many European...

“The Republicans Try for a Hail Mary Pass”

Apr 4, 2022 | Rollins College

The Republican’s have run out of options. They have successfully obstructed any hopes of a Democratic appointment to the Supreme Court since Obama’s final term. It was 2016 when Mitch McConell took...