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.

Why The Save Act Misses The Mark

The current administration's push for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act has become yet another polarizing topic between the left and the right. The SAVE America Act mandates voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of...

The Election That May Save Hungary’s Democracy

"Today we won because the Hungarian people didn't ask what their country could do for them, but what they could do for their country," -Péter Magyar Hungary just held its most consequential election in a generation, bringing an end to Viktor Orbán’s sixteen year reign...

Misinformation: The Role it Plays in the Persistence of the 2020 Election

The stability of democracy does not only rely on the security of elections but on the people’s trust of their legitimacy, and the aftermath of the 2020 United States presidential election shows how misinformation, elite influence, and repetition can erode that trust even when systems run properly.

Popularity Doesn’t Equal Democracy: A Look Into El Salvador’s Puzzle

Apr 19, 2026 | Boston University

Since President Nayib Bukele took office in 2019, El Salvador has undermined norms by changing the constitution, branches of government, and civil rights. While this...

The BJP and Democracy in India

Apr 19, 2026 | Suffolk University

India’s history with democracy is long and often complex, especially when considering cultural factors and the size of the population as it has continued to increase over...

AI as Democratic Erosion by Proxy: Trump, Synthetic Media, and the Normalization of Anti-Pluralism

Feb 14, 2026 | Boston University

Donald Trump’s use of AI-generated media, particularly content that fabricates or manipulates the speech and actions of political opponents, constitutes a form of democratic erosion by proxy: it...

Is India Facing Democratic Backsliding?

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University

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...

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

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University

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...

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

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University

On February 6, 2026, the Office of Personnel Management released a rule authorizing the reclassification of tens of thousands of “policy-influencing” positions within the executive bureaucracy,...

“When the Wolf is Beyond Reproach: An Exploration of Stealth Authoritarianism in America”

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University

Photo by NASA: www.unsplash.com “When the Wolf is Beyond Reproach: An Exploration of Stealth Authoritarianism in America” Stealth Authoritarianism: How Will We Know? Over the past few months, the...

How Hybrid Regimes Erode Democracies: The Philippines

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University

The current state of democracy in the Philippines demonstrates how hybrid regimes develop through executive power expansion, legal system manipulation, and attacks on fundamental institutions such...

The Ongoing Battle of Electoral Legitimacy in the United States

https://democratic-erosion.org/2026/02/13/the-ongoing-battle-of-electoral-legitimacy-in-the-united-states/

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University, Uncategorized

Americans have seen changing tides in the last ten years, marked by what many call a rise of a populist, a global pandemic, changes in mutual tolerance and forbearance of political opponents, as...

Poland Shows How Democracy Can Bend, But Not Break

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University

The people of Poland have witnessed democratic norms erode over the past decade, marked by the absence of credible courts, judicial collapse, and a lack of accountability. These actions were carried...

Ongoing Democratic Erosion in Brazil After Bolsonaro

Feb 13, 2026 | Boston University

Brazil’s democracy, as of recent years, has faced significant erosion as a result of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s actions as a semi-loyalist who frequently rejected political norms, two of...