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...

Buying Injustice: The Hidden Harms of this Act.

Are we looking to create a thriving society, or are we allowing fear into the lives of immigrant families? As new immigration policies appear, the question become, how do we prevent the changes that involve separating families and dismantling the place that...

Replacing Ballots with Bullets: How Shadow Operations are Crippling Democracy in Africa

Oct 31, 2025 | University of Georgia

Private military companies (PMCs) have long blurred the line between state power and profit, but few have done so as effectively—or destructively—as the Wagner Group....

President Trump’s Deployment of the National Guard: Frequently Asked Questions

Oct 31, 2025 | University of Georgia

In June 2025, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles. In August, he sent National Guard troops to Washington, DC. The process...

The Appeal of Discrimination to Populist Leaders

Mar 14, 2022 | University of Georgia

Populism has been defined by Encyclopedia Britannica as: a political movement which champions, or claims to champion, the common person, usually by favorable contrast with a real or perceived elite....

Tucker Carlson and the Mainstreaming of Authoritarianism

Mar 14, 2022 | University of Georgia

Grynbaum, Michael M. 2021. “Conservative Fellow Travelers: Tucker Carlson Drops In On Viktor Orban.” The New York Times, October 4, 2021....

How South Korea’s 2022 Presidential Election Redefined their Democracy

Mar 14, 2022 | University of Georgia

March 9, 2022, the day that sealed South Korea’s fate for the next five years. Citizens elected their thirteenth president through a popular voting system as Lee Jae-Myung from the Democratic Party...

Nations of Wealth: Resource Curse and its Impacts on Democracy

Mar 14, 2022 | University of Georgia

Since the dawn of civilization, resource acquisition and management has been of utmost interest. As populations grow, so do their demands for basic goods. The advent of the steam engine and the...

Trump and Sanders: Populism on the Right and the Left

Mar 14, 2022 | University of Georgia

https://medium.com/@marcushjohnson/bernie-sanders-and-donald-trump-are-two-sides-of-the-same-coin-a862b80762e7 While scholars differ on an exact definition of populism, the overall consensus is that...

Governing Social Media in the United States of America

Mar 14, 2022 | University of Georgia

In recent years the United States, as well as the rest of the globe, has been faced with a brand-new challenge that no political leader, policymaker, constitution writer, has ever been prepared for....

Partisan Elections — An Overlooked Threat to American Democracy

Mar 13, 2022 | Brown University

Sometimes it can feel like too much of the energy put into defending American democracy is being spent on symbolic fights. Democrats rail against voter ID laws that don’t do all that much hamper...

Psychology’s Role in Trump’s Populism

Mar 13, 2022 | Brown University

What are the psychological roots of President Donald Trump’s populist success? Understanding populism through Cas Mudde’s The Populist Zeitgeist and Jan-Werner Müller’s What Is Populism, the...