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 blogs reflect the views of the student authors, and not those of the Democratic Erosion Consortium.

Is India Facing Democratic Backsliding?

Within the past decade, political institutions have listed India’s democracy in a steady decline. The V-Dem Institute lists India as #100 out of 179 countries, classifying it as an “electoral autocracy,” citing the excessive pressures on media and challenges to civil...

Democratic Backsliding: How Trump’s Administration is Turning ICE into a Tool for Personalist Rule

The survival of modern democracy in the United States has been witnessing the threat of democratic erosion under the current administration. Since the re-election of Donald J. Trump in 2024, his actions on the law took place on his first day in office. Through his...

Reclassifying Bureaucratic Positions: How Trump’s New Rule Threatens Democracy

Analyzing how the reclassification of bureaucratic employees to Schedule Policy/Career positions erodes democracy in the U.S.

Is Democratic Erosion a Threat in the 2024 U.S. Election?

Sep 13, 2024 | Ohio State University

As we start the 2024 United States election cycle, campaign commercials, political slander, and discussions about immigration, healthcare, and taxation are all common....

Could Packing the Supreme Court be the Beginning of the End?

Sep 13, 2024 | Ohio State University

If one day, the president of the United States decided to absolve the Supreme Court it is safe to say most citizens would be concerned about the health of the democracy....

The Growth of Populism in El Salvador

Apr 30, 2021 | Georgia State University

El Salvador has had a difficult history when it comes to obtaining democracy in the country. They have been at the hands of multiple oppressive regimes since their independence and the first...

Democratic Erosion in Nigeria

Apr 30, 2021 | Georgia State University

Nigeria's connection with democracy has had the same exact makeup of a bad relationship. In the year of 1959 elections were held under the adopted “Westminster'' model of democracy but the country...

Myanmar’s Coup Cycle: Civil Society’s Fruitless Resistance

Apr 29, 2021 | Arizona State University

Civil society has met the military’s coup in February and detainment of democratic heroine Aung San Suu Kyi with both nonviolent and violent forms of protest. Will we see a revival in Myanmar’s...

Protests in Haiti

Apr 29, 2021 | Georgia State University

Nothing has ever come easy for Haiti and the citizens in Haiti. The country is on the verge of another violent collapse as Haitians take their grief and complaints to the streets regarding the...

A New Normal: Philippine Democracy Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Apr 29, 2021 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

It has been a year since COVID-19 shocked the world. Known as a zoonotic disease, COVID-19 is believed to be originated from animals or products from animal origins, transmitted to humans. This is a...

Democratic Erosion: United States

Apr 29, 2021 | Georgia State University

What happens when citizens suddenly feel they have lost their rights and their voices are not being heard? The minute the government does not take any accountability for plummeting democratic...

Democratic Erosion: Kenya

Apr 29, 2021 | Georgia State University

Kenya, a colony occupied by the United Kingdom originating in 1895, was first colonized during the Scramble to Africa. At this time, European countries, predominantly Belgium, Italy, Portugal,...

Mocha and Jam

Apr 28, 2021 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

On the Pathos of Colloquial Language and the Illusion of Ethos In 2017, a University of Oxford study reported that President Rodrigo Duterte’s camp during the 2016 election spent $200,000 for paid...

Philippine Democracy at Stake in the 2022 Elections

Apr 28, 2021 | University of the Philippines, Diliman

With only one more year to go, Duterte and his tyranny will finally end. This leaves the country’s democracy in a precarious position in the next 2022 elections. Will the country vote to regain...