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.

Look at What They Took From You: MAGA Polarization Through Social Media

With the accessibility of social media, how does the current administration use it to create polarization?

From Secularism to Islamic Authority: Democratic Backsliding in Bangladesh

The journalists and citizens of Bangladesh look to the Jamaat to abide by the July National Charter of 2025, which seeks to prevent autocratic rule from institutionalizing once more.

From Left to Right-Wing Populism: Can Argentina Survive Another Movement?

In November 2023, self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei won the Argentinian presidency. His campaign ran on the promise of dismantling the existing political establishment that many Argentinians had grown dissatisfied with. Yet, rather than departing from...

A Local Stage For Big Issues

Oct 11, 2024 | Ohio State University

Ohio’s state government is one of the most radically and staunch conservative enclaves in the United States. Yet their constituents do not quite align with this message and...

College Democrats Meeting and Democratic Erosion: A Reflection

Oct 11, 2024 | Ohio State University

Attending a recent College Democrats of America meeting at Ohio State University was an opportunity to not only reflect on various aspects of democratic erosion within...

Civil Society and Democratic Decline: A Look at Poland

Apr 11, 2021 | American University

Poland was once seen as a model post-Soviet transition to democracy. Between 1989 and 2014, Poland built democratic institutions, joined the EU, NATO, and the OSCE, and experienced significant...

Elites as Key to Elimination of Racial Injustice in America’s Government Institutions

Apr 11, 2021 | Rollins College

How much power do the masses have when it comes to preventing racial discrimination from bureacratic and state-level government institutions? As Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, demonstrates with the...

How Did We Get Here? Right Wing Populism in Poland

Apr 9, 2021 | American University

Several dozen members of the National Radical Camp (ONR) demonstrate against immigration in Warsaw, Poland, on Nov. 24, 2018. Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images and Foreign Policy There can be...

The EU and Its Populist Problem

Apr 9, 2021 | American University

Does the European Union (EU) have a populist problem? While many cannot even agree on what populism is, my answer to the question is an emphatic “Yes.” Media and political discourse in Western...

Virtual and Conventional Civil Society in Belarus

Apr 9, 2021 | American University

Protestors took to the streets to oppose the fraudulent election of “Europe’s Last Dictator” Alexander Lukashenko in the 2020 Belarusian presidential elections. Their defiance of the Lukashenko...

#VotoApruebo: How National Referenda Are Saving Chile’s Democracy

Apr 9, 2021 | American University

On October 25th, 2020, millions of Chileans at home and abroad voted overwhelmingly in favor of scrapping the 1980 Constitution. Furthermore, the populous voted in favor of establishing a...

Dissing Democracy

Apr 8, 2021 | American University

Nations known for defending and promoting liberal ideals are now dissing democracy. The latest Freedom House figures are shocking. From our perch in the West, we are witnessing a train smash in the...

The Re-Election of Nguyễn Phú Trọng and Its Implications for Vietnam

Apr 6, 2021 | Georgia State University

Vietnam is a country with an authoritarian and non-democratic regime, led solely by the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). Yet, unlike other authoritarian models of governments often spearheaded by...

The Dangerous Temptations of Gerrymandering

Apr 6, 2021 | Rollins College

To what lengths should one go to preserve the soul of their nation? As discussed by Russell Berman, the Democrats have an opportunity to protect their majority in the House of Representatives before...