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...

The Isolation of Successful Immigrants by Isabel Canamary Otoch

Apr 10, 2023 | Rollins College

Why So Many Children of Immigrants Rise to the Top [1] by Peter Coy reflects on the findings of two economists, Professor Abramitzky and Professor Boustan, displayed in...

Is American Democracy Backsliding?

Apr 10, 2023 | Rollins College

Vucci, Evan. AP News. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/656bfaa6bbb53b98a58c29bebb769f0d04500b1b/0_63_5074_3045/master/5074.jpg?width=645&quality=45&dpr=2&s=none ...

Is the BJP Consolidating Power?: A Case Study in Tamil Nadu Politics

Oct 13, 2020 | University of Georgia

Over the past six years India has seen the rise of the BJP, India’s center-right party. In the 2014 elections, the BJP’s coalition won the majority of seats in the Lok Sabha (India’s lower chamber),...

It Takes Two: Threats From Both Parties Have Turned the Supreme Court Into a Political Chess Match

Oct 13, 2020 | University of Georgia

Dating back to Chief Justice John Marshall’s revolutionary decision in Marbury v. Madison (1803), the United States Supreme Court has actively avoided being used as a pawn in political...

Will the People Be Heard: Can the Ongoing, Belarusian Protests Successfully Deliver a Lukashenko Resignation?

Oct 13, 2020 | University of Georgia

More than 60 days of non-violent protests have followed the August Belarusian elections. This piece examines the history of the development and if there is a credible argument that the ongoing...

Consensual Prostitute, Victim, or Trafficker?: The Ambiguous Position of Migrant Sex Workers in Tapachula, Mexico

Oct 13, 2020 | Brown University

At the southern corner of Mexico’s Pacific coast lies Tapachula, Chiapas, a bustling city of over 300,000 and one of Mexico’s major prostitution hubs. A stone’s throw from Guatemala, Tapachula is...

Abiy Ahmed: Democratic Leader or Burgeoning Autocrat?

Oct 13, 2020 | Brown University

The West is quick to pigeonhole African leaders as corrupt authoritarians or the “next” Nelson Mandela. Ethiopia under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed epitomizes the complexities of categorizing...

How Current Incumbents Are Using the COVID- 19 Pandemic To Suppress Voters

Oct 13, 2020 | University of Georgia

The manner in which states show democratic erosion tendencies differs today than in the past. Democratic erosion today is much more gradual. According to Nancy Bermeo, pre- election day...

Coronavirus’ Chinese Paradox: Crushing or Renewing Hopes for Democratization?

Oct 13, 2020 | Brown University

In the past twenty years, the world has been asking itself “will China democratize”? However, the Chinese Communist Party under President Xi has been doing so well that the debate had died down…...

A Shadow Pandemic: Domestic Violence Exacerbated by COVID-19

Oct 12, 2020 | Brown University

While COVID-19 has transformed life internationally, a “shadow pandemic” of domestic violence is occurring simultaneously (Godoy). Social isolation, as a result of self-quarantine and government...

The Culprit in Chile: The Living Legacy of U.S. Imperialism

Oct 12, 2020 | Brown University

On October 2, a police officer pushed a teenage protestor off a bridge in Santiago, Chile. This is only the most recent act of brutality in the now yearlong pro-democracy protests in Chile. Citizens...