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.

Arresting Opposition and Squashing Protests: Democratic Backsliding in Turkey Under Erdoğan

Turkey has been inching towards autocracy under Erdoğan and the AKP for the last 22 years.

2025 Romanian Elections: An Election Redo and a Barred Candidate

Only two weeks out from Presidential Elections, Romanian voters face a tough decision in deciding on the next leader of their country. The latest opinion polls show that nearly 40% of voters are still undecided on who to vote for. After all, most voters already cast...

Why Protecting American Democracy Means Coming Together In Protest

In the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, the Democratic Erosion Consortium's very own professors Robert Blair and Steven Rosenzweig wrote an article in The Boston Globe urging readers to “Get ready to protest like democracy depends on it.” The article was in...

“Positive Populism” in Electoral Campaign Overshadowed by Post-Election Reality in Slovenia

Sep 22, 2023 | Sciences Po Paris

In the 2022 parliamentary elections, Janez Janša, a right-wing populist leader of the SDS party was defeated by Robert Golob and his Freedom Movement, a new party on the...

Combatting Russian Disinformation: Estonia’s Response to the War in Ukraine

Aug 13, 2023 | Arizona State University

Co-authored by Sofia Walsh and David Thompson The war in Ukraine was a central theme in the March 2023 Estonian election. Like Ukraine, Estonia has a fraught history with...

Lessons Learned in Brussels: What Hungary’s Democratic Erosion Tells Us About the European Union’s Leverage

Nov 16, 2020 | University of Chicago

Incentives are everything. Since its founding in 1993, the European Union (EU) has understood this and become a master of soft power pressure and incentive-based democratic reforms. Indeed, as much...

A Cause To Celebrate?

Nov 15, 2020 | Suffolk University

This past week, The United States underwent one of the most tense elections in our history. The probability of violence with the victory of either candidate was strong. Cities all across the country...

Returned From Exile: Evo Morales Once Again Poses a Threat to Bolivian Democracy

Nov 15, 2020 | University of Chicago

(AP Photo/Juan Karita) After nearly a year in exile, former President Evo Morales returned to Bolivia on November 9th to a crowd of adoring fans at the Argentinian border. In spite of his...

Enabling Democratic Erosion: How Polish Government Polarized the Society

Nov 14, 2020 | University of Chicago

Scholars of political science who study the phenomenon of democratic erosion often analyze the relationship of it with polarization. While there is no academic consensus on which one causes which, a...

How Twitter Changes Stealth Authoritarian’s Approach to News Media

Nov 13, 2020 | University of Chicago

In the grand scheme of checks and balances on authoritarian tendencies, the media ideally plays an impartial role as a guardrail against democratic backsliding. 2016 posed a unique challenge to this...

How Populist Tactics Solidify the Legitimacy of North Korea’s Supreme Leader

Nov 9, 2020 | University of Chicago

The core of populism is in creating an image of the people and representing them to justify political power. [1] It is based on a myth as “the people” as a singular entity does not exist. A populist...

Donald Trump Uses Populist Methods for Arguments at Presidential Debate

Nov 8, 2020 | Georgia State University

September 29, 2020; the first presidential debate for the 2020 sent shockwaves into the nation that watched Donald Trump and Joe Biden insult each other live on television and streaming sites. The...

Could Voting By Mail Impact the Election and Contribute to Democratic Backsliding?

Nov 8, 2020 | Georgia State University

Due to the COVID pandemic, there has been a surge of interest in mail-in ballots. President Trump and his administration claims voter fraud is rampant prior to the November presidential election;...

A Recent Death, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s, Could Reshape the Court for Generations to Come

Nov 1, 2020 | Georgia State University

On September 18, 2020, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice passed away from pancreatic cancer leaving America on alert. She was quoted by NPR saying, “My most fervent wish is that...